Posted on 09/14/2010 11:46:17 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
A commercial kennel owner in New York destroyed 93 dogs using a hose connected to a farm engine and pumping carbon monoxide into a makeshift "gas chamber."
David Yoder, owner of Black Diamond Acres kennel in Romulus, told a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector during a July 15 inspection that he killed the dogs to "depopulate" the kennel.
Yoder said he created an airtight chamber out of a wood whelping box (where nursing puppies are typically housed with their mothers) by fitting the opening with a metal door with a small hole for an exhaust pipe which was attached to a 3 horsepower farm engine.
Then he gassed "approximately" 78 adult dogs and 15 puppies in groups of five or six. Yoder said he left the barn during the gassing because he had a headache from the fumes. He also said he used a stethoscope to make sure the dogs had stopped breathing before burying them, according to the inspection report.
It is against federal law for a licensed kennel owner to perform their own euthanasia. The inspector, Andrea D'Ambrosio, also noted that dogs not immediately gassed likely suffered from inhaling the excess fumes.
"The manner of mass euthanasia caused potentially high levels of behavioral stress and unnecessary discomfort to all the dogs in the kennel," the report said.
Mary Anne Kowalski, a board member of the Seneca County SPCA, said she was not aware of anyone from the USDA reporting what she believes is a clear case of animal cruelty to local authorities.
The dogs were killed sometime after a June 29 inspection where Yoder had been ordered to get his dogs tested and treated for Brucellosis (after earlier tests indicated some of his dogs had the contagious disease) and before the inspector returned on July 15.
The case bears an eerie resemblance to the 2008 mass shooting at a Berks County, Pa., kennel after the owner was told to treat his dogs for flea infestation. That incident helped propel the passage of the new state dog law and the immediate prohibition of euthanasia by any means other than by a licensed veterinarian.
Romulus, located 60 miles southeast of Rochester in Seneca County, may have been the first municipality in the nation to ban puppy mills when it passed an ordinance last year outlawing commercial kennels.
Seneca County has a sizeable Amish population, and many are involved in dog breeding, Kowalski said. Yoder, who is Amish, bred poodles, Bichons, Maltese and Boston Terriers. He was allowed to continue operating his kennel in Romulus despite the ban because it was grandfathered under the new ordinance.
Kowalski, who discovered the report of the gassing on the USDA website while updating her files today, said she was stunned at what she read. "I just lost it," she said.
Kowalski said she reported the incident to the sheriff and district attorney in the hope that cruelty charges will be brought against Yoder.
"I hope these dogs did not die in vain," she said.
Headaches, nausea, confusion, unconsciousness, death.
Not very euphoric, but not a particularly bad way to go.
“What this guy did was NOT produce Carbon Monoxide. The way to do that, is to have the exhaust AND intake vented into the same room, then the engine creates CO when it doesn’t have enough oxygen to run properly.”
Exhaust is N2, H20, CO2, and CO.
The CO2 and N2 displaces the oxygen in the air and the CO inhibits the transport of O2 in the blood. The result of inhalation is to become intoxicated (high), sleepy, coma, death.
It’s painless to the point of deception according to persons who have nearly died from it.
It is not even that "we" look at them differently. Our feelings are not at issue. Statutorily, right or wrong, good law, bad law, just law. It IS illegal to self destroy animal property by these means. Period. He broke the law and that means he has an accountability for his actions, criminally.
Nope, you are incorrect. some people just Play Tough Guy with Sarcasm to ‘bait” posters.
The observation is then that they ARE too dumb to discuss the issues.
Ditto !!!
Like shootin' fish in a barrel.
Oh wait, if I did that, that would be like a German prisoner of war camp or somethin'. LOL
Animals, sick or unwanted are killed. By statute, local and federal standards apply. This man broke the law. That is all. We can debate if the laws are good, go to far, don't go far enough, but that is another debate. This case is past tense. He is guilty and will have an accounting for it.
You may be a rancher, but that was a hayseed puppy mill operation. Every redneck out in the country with a few cages and a breeding pair of dogs thinks they're a breeder.
Maybe you accept people equating some Amish yokel like that gassing the Maltese puppies that he couldn't sell thanks to his neglect with your food-production ranching operation, but I sure can't understand why.
Seems like two completely separate operations to me.
Is he a Muslim? If so it is probably OK.
“It is different, statutorily.”
No it’s not. No such law exist.
The issue is: this guy is a scum bag who breeds puppies in such a manner they get diseased and puppies are cute.
Hmmm, sounds like a thunderstorm for me, except the unconsciousness and death.
Every post you’ve made to me has been an insult thus proving my point.
We had a case here last year or so in which a mom left her SUV running in the garage. Her daughter and a friend of the daughter died overnight. Very sad. This stuff happens. It would appear that you go to sleep and don’t wake up.
Just trying to keep it calm. You wouldn't want to BECOME them? Right? I am sure you can easily make the case where the law has become absurd and is oppressive to the liberty of men. THAT should be easy.
I think it’s the law because it’s dogs. Is it against the law to destroy other sorts of animals this way? Or was it against the law to do this in the past? I think, Rachel, you are missing my point. It IS the law because of how we look at these particular PET animals.
Read the story again.
They were diseased....they had to be put down....so you think he should have taken them to a vet and pay $75.00 apiece. Sounds like the man did what he had to do with the tools he had!!!
My understanding was that he did not do this properly.
I am not a vegetarian and DO know my place in the food chain. I abhor NEEDLESS suffering of animals and I really get upset if a person appears callous or abusive to animals, not just because of the animals, but because it says more about them and their propensity to human abuse.
You sound like a very decent person and yes, a ranch is different than the suburbs or the city. Animals are killed. We are doing the best we can, that’s all.
Good points.
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