Dog Community

Shelter selling carcasses

Posted : 3/29/2007 10:19:45 PM

http://www.newsok.com/article/3032665/

Animal advocate criticizes sale of carcasses

By John Estus
Staff Writer

Animal rights advocates call an agreement to sell dead animal bodies from the city shelter to a private company "distasteful” and claim officials didn't give the public a fair chance to debate the plan.

City officials said the advocates have the wrong idea about the new agreement.

Oklahoma City is expected to make $8,750 a year selling dead animals to a California company, Sargeant's Wholesale Biologicals, that then will sell the bodies to schools and universities for educational purposes.

The company will pay the city $2.50 for each carcass, according to the contract.

"Shelters are meant to be a safe haven. Not suppliers of laboratory animals,” said Cynthia Armstrong, state program manager for The Humane Society of the United States. "I'm really disappointed that council approved a contract of this sort.”

Council members unanimously approved the contract Tuesday and stressed that live animals from the shelter will not be sold to the company.

The agreement will have no effect on the number of animals euthanized, said Jon Gary, unit operations supervisor for the city's animal welfare division.

Gary said the change will free animal welfare officers for other duties.

Armstrong said she didn't learn of the plan until Monday night and wishes city officials would have asked animal advocacy groups for their input.

"It seriously erodes the public image of a shelter to be dealing in animal carcasses,” she said. "It's as distasteful as I can imagine.”

I guess it's a little freaky to think about, but I don't really mind the idea of the bodies going for educational purposes.

Does anyone else's shelter do this? What would you think about it if they did?

rwbeagles

Posted : 3/29/2007 10:23:05 PM

I don't have a problem with it.

Haleigh

Posted : 3/29/2007 10:27:49 PM

I say go for it. To me, carcasses should go towards education at vet schools and research for medical diseases.

mollymoo

Posted : 3/29/2007 11:01:16 PM

When I was in high school we got to disect kittens and baby pigs. Healthy baby pigs and kittens. They died for education. Now we will take the poor puppys that are put to sleep and cut them up. Why unless they have a disease where they can learn something. But if they are healthy why? What more are they going to learn. They have models of cats, dogs, humans to go by.

Ratsicles

Posted : 3/29/2007 11:10:08 PM

I wouldn't have a problem with it....if I believed for a SECOND that it really wouldn't affect the number of animals euthanized. Which I don't.

Bullymom

Posted : 3/29/2007 11:10:09 PM

Creepy! When I was in school, we disected a Starfish and a frog. Pretty nasty. I almost threw up. The teacher had to help me leave the room!! If it will help in education, go fo it

Xebby

Posted : 3/30/2007 12:05:33 AM

I don't see anything wrong with that... Ever taken a college level bio class? Yep, you can buy a dozen frozen cats at a time out of a magazine that sells animals for that purpose. I really never asked where they came from. Have to learn from somewhere and plastic models just don't do as good of a job as the real thing. My boyfriend even had to dissect a human brain for his neurology class, sent me some pretty nice pics.

The way I see it is they are not purposely euthanizing more animals, they are using the ones they already have to put to sleep to make money to help those who are still alive, otherwise they would just cremate them and throw the ashed in the dump. Imagine what the could do with that extra money and how many more animals they could help.

Raja19

Posted : 3/30/2007 12:10:29 AM

I do not have a problem with it either.

But I think its a bit sad that all these animals are worth is $2.50

mollymoo

Posted : 3/30/2007 12:37:52 AM

Sorry I still have a problem with this. Unless they have a medical problem that they can learn from just go with the models. Thank God we had our dogs cremated. The next step would be for vets to do this too. I would hate to think my dogs would go towards education.

workingpaws

Posted : 3/30/2007 1:58:36 AM

I think this is better than other alternatives. Also less euthanasia riddled bodies will be sold to dog food companies (not mentioning names) poisoning the food.

rolenta

Posted : 3/30/2007 2:11:34 AM

I remember when my dad worked at a Dalhousie University in Halifax. They did experiments on animals there. They also did experiments on humans who had donated their bodies to education.

It seems to me that these animals would be euthanized anyway. So while it may be a bit creepy to deal with (I would never personally disect a dog until my life depended on it), it doesn't seem to me that there's nothing immoral going on here. Likewise, I would have no problem with my body being used for experiments and science. Your body doesn't exactly stay the same after you're dead, so you may as well.

the_gopher

Posted : 3/30/2007 7:19:57 AM

I have no problem with it. I would rather a carcass go to education and whatever little money is brought into the shelter be able to go to further support that shelter's operation.

That said I've often contemplated just letting my body go to science lol. I mean to me it's just a body, and empty vessel. Don't see no point in it hanging around being useless. But I'm weird.

snownose

Posted : 3/30/2007 7:34:06 AM

If something can be gained from it, why not......
Better than ending up at the city dump.

DPU

Posted : 3/30/2007 8:29:57 AM

Dogs are in shelters because they are deemed worthless at least by one individual, its owner. Placing a price of $2.50 on a carcass makes the poor dog worth more dead than alive. I guarantee there is/will be corruption someplace somewhere. I agree that it is in poor taste. I don#%92t need my tax dollars back that way. Shelters and Universities are supported by tax dollars. Why do we need the private company creating incentives for corruption. Shelters should give the carcasses directly to the Universities.

seashell

Posted : 3/30/2007 8:40:55 AM

I do agree that while studying human anatomy I learned a lot more working on cadavors than models, but we have the choice of whether or not we want to donate our bodies to science.

I would be afraid that a program like the one above would increase the number of animals put to sleep, even though I see where vet students would benefit from cadavors to work on.