Mendon, Ohio, is in the NE corner of Mercer County; located on the Ohio & Indiana line. No large cities close by.

Found this...

"Mercer County, Ohio
Mercer County kills dogs using engine exhaust. The dogs are placed in metal boxes on the back of the dog warden's truck and a hose is run from an engine. 369 dogs died this way in 2001.

The Mercer County Dog Pound consists of four indoor/outdoor pens in an old barn on the farm of Dog Warden Tom Powell. One of the pens is larger, and will typically be filled with a variety of dogs from puppies, adults, males and females. Dogs are not consistently separated to prevent fighting, breeding and spread of disease and parasites. The outside holding areas are concrete and chain-link. Two of the smaller areas have inside shelter (inside the non-climate controlled building) of small solid wooden, bin-type structures with hinged lids...wooden boxes. The third smaller holding area has no inside shelter. It contains a medium sized plastic dog house for shelter. There are NO shelter hours.

HSUS has visited and made recommendations and told the county commissioners they couldn't kill animals in this way. Apparently, they didn't listen well enough. Mercer County needs to get the message."

SOURCE of the Above: Pet FBI.org web page
NOTE!! There is NO Date on this informational page...
Have no idea when this story was developed.

IF it's still true - this could have something to do with "The local authorities "can't do anything" line in Muggsy's original cross-post article.

The Animal Protection League of Mercer County has pages on PetFinder...
APL of Mercer County (Ohio)

/s/ Phred