By Jennifer Edwards
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LEBANON - The executive director of the Warren County Humane Association acknowledged Tuesday that the agency has launched an internal investigation into allegations that cats have been killed prematurely and that several were still alive when stuffed inside garbage bags.

Shelter workers were trying to clear a room of the dying cats May 2 before a fund-raising tour came through, one of the shelter's part-time employees, Mandi MacCutcheon, said Tuesday.

EUTHANIZATION

Cats and dogs are usually lethally injected with sodium pentobarbital, a barbiturate that is a central nervous system depressant. Usually it is given to dogs intravenously and injected into cats' abdominal cavities. It is absorbed quickly and painlessly into the animal's system. It goes directly to the brain. The animal immediately feels sleepy and is unconscious within two minutes. Generally, about three to five minutes after injection, the animal dies. Source: American Humane Association

MacCutcheon said she could tell the cats were still living after lethal injections - which can take several minutes to kill - when placed in the bags and then a freezer. They were crying, licking their lips and moving their limbs in a swimming-like motion, she said.

"They put crying, swimming cats in the freezer," said MacCutcheon, 19, of Lebanon. "I told them, 'These cats aren't dead.' "

The shelter's attorney is heading the probe. The allegations are outlined in statements two part-time employees and one volunteer wrote and gave to then-board president Wendy McAdams earlier this month. Those statements were read to the board at its May 16 meeting and released Tuesday to the Enquirer.

The allegations include claims that high numbers of healthy cats and kittens have been needlessly euthanized and that cats have been mistreated by workers.

The two animal care technicians who are speaking out - MacCutcheon and Melissa Wilson-Cooper, 24, also of Lebanon - say they plan to file formal complaints with law enforcement and a national animal rights group.

Mari Lee Schwarzwalder, the association's executive director, vehemently insisted Tuesday that nothing improper is going on and described the workers who are speaking publicly as "disgruntled."

"I know it's not true. We take the best possible care of the animals we possibly can. We have for 30 years and, you know, we are clean," she said.

McAdams and former board members Barb Garten and Diane Ulrich also discussed the allegations in interviews Tuesday.

In a special meeting May 16, the board unanimously voted to look into the legality of firing one of the employees involved in the alleged freezer incident, they said. They voted 8-1 to look into suspending the other employee allegedly involved and to have an outside attorney investigate, McAdams said.

But at the board's next regular meeting May 20, the majority of the board voted to let the shelter's own attorney investigate. Schwarzwalder urged that the matter be handled that way, the former board members said.

That's when, McAdams said, she felt she had no choice but to walk out.

"I stood up and said, 'I know there is a serous problem going on with the cats at this shelter and I want no part of it,' " she said Tuesday. "The cats that are coming in right now to the shelter are not being given a chance."

Four board members have resigned.

Most of the 6,208 cats and dogs turned over to the Warren association last year were killed because, shelter operators say, the facility doesn't have room to hold them until they are adopted.

Out of 1,105 dogs that have come in this year, 772 have been killed, shelter records show. Out of 795 cats, 614 have been put to death.

The 74 percent euthanization rate in Warren last year compared to a national rate of about 64 percent. Clermont and Butler euthanization rates were also higher than the national average, while Hamilton and Boone counties' rates were lower.

Euthanized animals must be confirmed dead before they are disposed of, said Doug Fakkema, associate director of shelter services for the American Humane Association in Denver, Colo. He is considered a national expert on animal euthanasia and trains technicians.

"That is one part you don't hurry up," Fakkema said. "The job is not finished until the animal has been positively verified dead. There is an ethical responsibility on the part of the shelter worker to make sure the animal is dead."

The association is trying to raise $300,000 more for a new building expected to open next year at their quarters off Ohio 48. So far, they have raised $2.5 million. With the expansion, which should more than double the shelter's space, operators are hoping fewer animals will be killed.

E-mail jedwards@enquirer.com.