Davis tops in animal euthanizing

Davis County Animal Control put down 6,253 animals last year — mostly cats and dogs. That's more animals than any similar agency in the state.

Statewide, 30,000 cats and dogs are put down each year in shelters, said Holly Sizemore, spokeswoman for No More Homeless Pets in Utah, an organization dedicated to ending euthanizations of animals.

Davis County was responsible for 21 percent of those euthanizations last year, followed by Utah County, which had only one shelter last year, with 19 percent. Third was Salt Lake County Animal Services, which covers Salt Lake City, Herriman, Taylorsville, Cottonwood Heights and unincorporated areas of the county, at 18 percent.

St. George Animal Control officer April McManus called the number of euthanized pets in the state "ungodly."

"Some are healthy and completely adoptable animals," she said.

While shelters are branded with an image as the place where animals die, shelter supervisors hate to euthanize animals.

But sometimes, there are just too many animals in a shelter, violating the shelter's regulations. And budgets are tight.

"It's a societal problem that requires a lot of resources," Sizemore said. "We need citizens to stand up and tell governments they want life-saving programs."

When Dwayne Pryor left Davis County Animal Control in May, at odds with some county officials, he took with him 10 1/2 years of experience as an animal-control director. He also took ideas that might have changed Davis County from being the highest-euthanizing animal-control agency in the state.

The new interim animal-control director, Davis County Sheriff's Lt. Ted Ellison, said the county is already trying to reduce the number of euthanizations, but tight budgets and few employees keep the agency from achieving that. Davis County Animal Control covers the entire county and handles wildlife problems, such as raccoons and skunks, as well.

"I haven't started to fight this battle," said Ellison, who's been on the job for about a month.

Ellison said one of his first objectives is to get the agency's Web site updated. The site currently states that Davis County euthanizes 10,000 animals a year, nearly all that are taken into the shelter. Ellison said he does not know whether that number is accurate.

Utah County, which garnered attention earlier this year for mistakenly euthanizing six dogs in its Spanish Fork shelter, puts down approximately 5,760 animals of the estimated 9,600 it impounds each year.