Our Views: Shelter report disappointing

• Advocate Opinion page staff
• Published: Aug 21, 2008 - Page: 6B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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We are appalled by the wholesale killing of at least 170 animals, sick and healthy alike, on Aug. 4 at a Tangipahoa Parish shelter.

We also are disappointed that, so far, the incident remains very mysterious.

Little was revealed Monday in a report by Glen Galbraith, a Hammond lawyer who was hired by parish officials to look into the incident.

At least two independent inquiries are planned, one by the Humane Society of Louisiana and the other by the Humane Society of the United States. We hope they will be more illuminating.

The Humane Society of Louisiana has said it will investigate the mass euthanasia and other issues about which it has received complaints in the past. The Humane Society of the United States has said it plans on-site inspections in September and eventually will produce a report on parish animal-control  operations.

So far, the illness or illnesses that led to the mass euthanasia remain unclear. Galbraith’s report says no cultures were taken and no medical tests were done.

The Advocate had requested veterinary records, including medical tests. Galbraith said there are no such records.

Apparently, the only existing document relating to the controversial incident is a $4,030 invoice submitted by Thomas “Tiger” Hulsey, the Amite veterinarian who put down the animals.

Galbraith said Randall Toney, the Hammond veterinarian who concurred with Hulsey’s euthanasia recommendation, had not submitted an invoice for payment.

More than two weeks after the animals were killed, it’s not even clear how many animals were put down.

Hulsey’s invoice says 54 cats and 118 dogs were euthanized, for a total of 172 animals. A written log by animal-control workers gives a total of 182, and a computer log at the shelter says 204 animals were killed.

The mass euthanasia resulted from multiple illnesses among dogs at the shelter and a lack of quarantine space to isolate healthy animals, but neither veterinarian gave a definitive diagnosis, Galbraith’s report says.

Salmonella and canine coronavirus have been mentioned as possibilities. Canine   coronavirus, usually a mild gastrointestinal illness, was cited as a possibility for some of the sick dogs, but not all of them. Cats were put down as a precaution because salmonella can cross species and spread among dogs, cats and humans.