Kennel Owners Shoot 80 Dogs Because they Had Fleas

Two kennel owners in the USA shot and killed 80 dogs because they had fleas rather than treat the animal’s parasitic infestation.

Incredibly, the men’s action was NOT illegal.

Elmer Zimmerman shot 70 dogs dogs at his kennel and his brother shot 10 at a neighbouring kennel establishment.

Inspectors had visited the brother’s dogs and had issued instructions that they be treated for fleas along with advice that the dogs were suffering from heat, inadequate bedding and dangerous floors.

The current state law in Pennsylvania decrees that kennel owners may dispose of dogs for any reason they may so choose.

Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell has proposed legislation that would make it unawful for anyone other than a qualified veterinarian to put a dog to sleep in commercial canine kennels.

Rendell’s law ”wouldn’t necessarily have prohibited them from killing their own dogs, but it wouldn’t have been done by gunshot,” claimed Karel Minor of the Berks Humane Society.

”It would maybe have made it more likely that they surrendered the animals to a shelter. Nobody can possibly say this was an acceptable way of handling dogs with fleas”, Minor added.

Elmer Zimmerman claimed he was living in fear of the state closing his kennel and also suggested a veterinarian recommended the destruction of the dogs. “They were old, and we were hearing that they don’t want kennels anymore,” he said. ”The best thing to do was get rid of them.”

Jessie Smith, special deputy secretary of the dog-law bureau exclaimed, ”That someone would shoot 70 dogs rather than spend money to do a vet check is extremely problematic.”

The brothers had the option to turn the dogs over to the care of rescue shelters but instead chose to terminate the animals by gunshot.

”Every humane society in the state would have taken those dogs,” said a rep for the Pennyslvania SPCA.

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Tags:  Animal Welfare