Miami-Dade Shelter Exposed for Practicing Heartstick Euthanasia on Homeless Pets

Heartstick euthanasia, otherwise known as intracardiac injection, is inhumane. At best, it involves a sodium pentobarbital-filled syringe being jabbed through a sedated animal's chest wall into the heart. At worst, the animal is fully conscious, or the technician misses the narrow chest wall and punctures sensitive nerve endings or a lung instead.

And it's being practiced at the Miami-Dade Animal Shelter, one of the largest facilities in the Southeast.

On January 25th, WSVN News broke the story, which included video footage of a shelter employee euthanizing animals by heartstick in a-ward, the shelter's euthanasia room. The footage is hard to stomach. An assisting technician, Grace Avila, who witnessed the procedure, told the network that the animals in the video were not sedated. "It would have taken twice as long if they were." She didn't stay until the procedure was finished, though. Why? Because the animals were "screaming."

Ms. Avila reported the incidents to the shelter administrators, and for her trouble, was later fired for "unrelated reasons."  Ms. Avila's attorney has filed a lawsuit against the shelter as a result. But regardless, the shelter's administrators must have satisfactorily addressed the heartstick problem after seeing the evidence, right?

Wrong.

Animal services director Dr. Sara Pizano, a veterinarian, demoted the technician who used the heartstick procedure on animals, because the procedure was "cruel." But now, there will be no way to ensure it isn't being implemented, because Dr. Pizano had the video camera, which she initially had installed for the animals' protection, removed because "she was concerned about negative reaction by the public."

In a follow-up to the initial report, WSVN reporter Carmel Cafiero questioned why avoiding a negative public reaction would be more important than monitoring "to make sure that the heart sticks aren't going on as we sit here right now." Dr. Pizano responded that she is "concerned about 36,000 animals that are abandoned at this shelter, and the more negative press there is about this shelter, the less chance they have to be saved."

Now that's a logic fail if I ever heard one. The way to end negative press is to increase visibility, increase monitoring, and ensure that the cruelty at Miami-Dade Animal shelter does not continue. Banning the use of the heartstick procedure, terminating the employment of the technician who used it, rewarding technicians who report cruel activity, and reinstalling the video camera in the euthanasia room — that would help the 36,000 animals in Dr. Pizano's care. Not fostering a media blackout, hunkering down, and hoping the justified complaints will just go away.

Because they aren't going away. On February 15th, over fifty animal welfare activists protested conditions at the shelter, and specifically called for Dr. Pizano's removal, since approximately 21,000 of the 36,000 homeless pets that entered the shelter last year were killed there. George Moris, a cofounder of No Kill Nation in South Florida, feels that Dr. Pizano has had plenty of time to turn things around at the shelter, but the changes she's made have only been "minimal."

These are the facts: Dogs and cats are being abandoned through no fault of their own, and shelters nationwide are overburdened and underfunded. But that doesn't excuse poor decision making and tolerance for animal cruelty.

Homeless pets at the Miami-Dade Animal shelter need to be adopted now more than ever. But for the tens of thousands of dogs and cats who won't be adopted and will be euthanized there? Please speak up for them.

Photo credit: ian.m.phillips