Animal Control

WEST VALLEY CITY -- West Valley City officials say they still plan to use their animal shelter's gas chamber despite calls to replace it with lethal injection after a cat survived being gassed twice.

CLINTON -- Mindy Isakson finds it disturbing to see a 5-inch-long blow dart lodged in the neck of a female duck splashing about in the Clinton Pond.

LOS ANGELES -- A veterinary technician at a Los Angeles city animal shelter was fired last week after officials found that he had subjected dogs to inhumane treatment while euthanizing them.

MORGAN -- The Morgan County Council has a bad case of buyer's remorse, so even though it has already spent nearly $100,000 to build an animal control facility, the council will return a bond and scrap current plans.

The council unanimously voted to halt all work on the project, pay all outstanding debts to architects and contractors, and return a $600,000 bond. The council has already spent $95,200 for the project.

"The budget is extremely tight this year. Right now there is no way to make the numbers work," said Councilman Ned Mecham, who opposed incurring the debt since taking his seat on the council in January 2011. "There is no way the county can do it."

OGDEN -- The city has implemented a new door-to-door compliance program aimed at reducing the number of unlicensed dogs and cats.

MORGAN -- When Morgan resident Braydon Deru got a dog from the Davis Animal Shelter, he didn't think a Morgan County animal control officer would come knocking on his door, telling him he had to get rid of it.

HARRISVILLE -- The city will pay almost 29 percent more to Weber County Animal Control next year than it did in the past, with a larger fee increase forecast for the year after that.