February 7, 2003

The Letters Editor
Kelowna Daily Courier

With regards to your article of Feb 7, 2003 ,"SPCA Furious Over Rumours, Asks For Police Protection", I find it interesting that Kelowna SPCA manager Russ Forand admits that indeed "shelter staff euthanized" the dogs seized from Gaston Lapointe. Not a veterinarian.

Forand's statement juxtaposed with rumours of a senior staff member "stabbing" dogs in the heart makes me wonder if there isn't a needle of truth in this haystack.

Stabbing in the heart conjures visions of a knife, but nowhere in the accusations is a knife ever mentioned.

As an experienced veterinary technician, my own guess is that the senior staff member was euthanizing the dogs by means of cardiac puncture, a procedure where Euthanyl is injected into an animal's heart with a hypodermic needle, causing death.

What troubles me though, is that is a very painful and cruel procedure, and is not condoned by the British Columbia Veterinary Medical Association unless appropriate anaesthesia (not sedation) is first administered.

I'm pretty sure the Kelowna SPCA has no inhalent anaesthetic on site, nor the expensive equipment with which to properly administer it. Therefore, it would be my conclusion that only straight Euthanyl was used. For the sake of those poor dogs, it is my sincere hope that someone on staff at Kelowna SPCA has the ability to hit a cephalic, saphenous, or jugular vein. But I'm suspecting they don't. I'm suspecting the rumour of "stabbing in the heart" comes from an eyewitness account of cardiac puncture with a needle full of Euthanyl. Painful and cruel.

Rumours have to start somewhere, and I suspect this is where the "stabbing" comes from. How expensive can it possibly be to have a veterinarian come out to the shelter and euthanize the dogs? Not only would it stop the rumours of stabbing, it would ensure donors that animals did not suffer in their last moments at the SPCA.

Jennifer Dickson