OLIVETTE — The head of the Animal Protective Association sent a note to donors and volunteers on Wednesday saying St. Louis County has promised the organization it won’t use mass euthanasia at the county animal shelter.
APA chief Sarah Javier said in the note that she and the organization’s staffers are “deeply dismayed that a plan, or even a suggestion of mass euthanasia ever existed†in the county’s records.
But a senior county official late Tuesday night promised such a plan wasn’t on the table, Javier said.
Javier, in an interview Wednesday, declined to name who from the county and APA spoke because she hadn’t received their permission to share. But she said the person from the county had the authority to make such a promise.
The APA’s note was sent a day after the Post-Dispatch made public a draft euthanasia plan written by a county health department employee. The plan first circulated among senior department staffers in August after the APA announced plans to end its contract with the county.
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suggested “shelter wide†or “full shelter†euthanasia in case there were too many animals left for county staffers to care for.
County officials, including health Director Dr. Kanika Cunningham, denied the plan existed when county resident Lisa Pearse asked for it in an open records request last summer, according to a lawsuit filed on Pearse’s behalf.
But this week, officials acknowledged existence of the plan. They said it was written by operations manager Lee Jackson to help with the shelter’s transition back to the county.
The plan was scrapped, however, after Cunningham saw it, according to health department spokeswoman Sara Dayley.
“Never would she support what Lee suggested,†Dayley said in an email this week.
The APA, in an effort to clear as many animals as possible, is waiving pet adoption fees until it ceases operating the shelter at 6 p.m. Friday.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, 16 animals from the shelter were adopted, three were returned to their owners and three went to foster homes, according to APA spokesperson KT Stuckenschneider.
The St. Louis-based organization Stray Rescue was also taking some animals on Wednesday, Stuckenschneider said.
But new animals continued to come in — about 100 were at the shelter as of Wednesday morning, roughly the same number as Tuesday.
Despite being closed someone has to take care of the dogs and cats at the Humane Society of Missouri. Several staff members and volunteers braved the snow on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022 to take care of the animals in the shelter's care. Adoption center director Anne Vincent urges community members to call their animal abuse hotline if they are concerned about an animal's welfare during extreme winter weather.
Video by Colter Peterson, cpeterson@post-dispatch.com
