[Purple]

Pets Hurled Off Bridge in Puerto Rico

By OMAR MARRERO

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Animal control workers seized dozens of dogs and cats from housing projects in the town of Barceloneta and hurled them from a bridge to their deaths, authorities and witnesses said Friday. Mayor Sol Luis Fontanez blamed a contractor hired to take the animals to a shelter.

"This is an irresponsible, inhumane and shameful act," he told The Associated Press.

Fontanez said the city hired Animal Control Solution to clear three housing projects of pets after warning residents about a no-pet policy. He said the city paid $60 for every animal recovered and another $100 for each trip to a shelter in the San Juan suburb of Carolina.

Raids were conducted on Monday and Wednesday, and residents told TV reporters they saw the animal control workers inject the animals. When they asked what they were giving them, they said they were told it was a sedative for the drive to the shelter.

"They came as if it were a drug raid," said Alma Febus, an animal welfare activist. "They took away dogs, cats and whatever animal they could find. Some pets were taken away in front of children."

But instead of being taken to a shelter, the pets and strays were thrown 50 feet from a bridge in the neighboring town of Vega Baja, according to Fontanez, witnesses and activists, apparently before dawn Tuesday.

"Many were already dead when they threw them, but others were alive," said Jose Manuel Rivera, who lives next to the bridge. "Some of the animals managed to climb to the highway even though they were all battered, but about 50 animals remained there, dead."

Rivera said he alerted officials, who spread lime over the animals' corpses to control the stench.

Animal Control Solution owner Julio Diaz said he went to the bridge when he heard of the allegations, but remains unconvinced that the dead animals are the same ones his company collected.

"We have never thrown animals off any place. We always take them to our local shelter and euthanize them," he said. "They can't prove that they are the same dogs that we picked up."

Fontanez said he would cancel the city's contract with Animal Control Solution and said city lawyers were considering a lawsuit.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has a rule allowing locally owned and operated housing authorities to set pet rules, but it does not grant authority for a blanket ban or mass confiscation, said Brian Sullivan, an HUD spokesman in Washington.

Asked to comment on the reported pet massacre, Sullivan said: "This sickens me if true."

Animal rights activists have long criticized the treatment of pets in Puerto Rico, where there is no pet registration law and little spaying or neutering. Animal shelters are overwhelmed and must kill many of the dogs they receive, according to Victor Collazo, president of the island's Association of Medical Veterinarians.

One organization recruits volunteers to take dogs home with them on commercial flights, and sends between 1,500 and 2,000 dogs a year from Puerto Rico to American shelters.

At least 175 dogs have been rescued in the last couple of years from Yabucoa Beach, which activists nicknamed "Dead Dog Beach" because of the strays that roam the coast and are sometimes found dead of disease, starvation or gunshots. Similar rescue efforts have been undertaken in the Bahamas and elsewhere in the Caribbean.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j...Sk87AD8S7VACO0

[Michele]

Those AC workers should be hurled over a bridge.

[Vinnyboy]

this is gotta be the most discusting thing i ever read. I hope to god these bastards die the most terrible death anyone could ever suffer, may they all burn in hell. I just hope those poor babies didn't suffer, my god, this is a helpless animal. How can anyone? anyone? hurt such a precious thing. I hate cats, but i would never in a million years hurt one, I just couldn't 2012 should be the end of th world, we deserve it, theres no more compassion in this world is it? god life sucks. I just want to die, and live in rainbow bridge forever. I lost my dog yesterday, and ive never been so hurt. Life sucks. then you die right?

[jillibean87]

I seriously don't even know what to say.

[Lieander]

.... What has this world come to?

[Gatlinsmommy]

Is Global Warming lowering people's IQ's and their ability to have a heart?? Those poor animals! Maybe we should through those AC workers off the bridge, then say that we can't prove it's the same workers... Just like the AC head said about the dogs.

[Debbie]

There was a story in our local paper a couple months ago...
A housing project in our area hired one of those Animal services to pick up "feral" cats around the projects.....
Problem was they were picking up people's pets too....

When asked where they took the cats they wouldn't answer the residents. Apparently they weren't taking them to any of the local shelters....

[Fieldmarshal]

I would honestly do very bad things that cannot be said on this forum to those people if they did that to my dog. Actually, i would do it to them even if it wasn't my dog. People are so heartless sometimes.

[Miss_Lexi]

that is just horrible!

[wiggly09]

That is absolutely horrific! It boggles my mind how anyone can treat another living creature that way. Unfortunately, this sort of treatment is 'normal' in Puerto Rico. My boyfriend and I vacationed there last year for the first time and we saw first hand the out of control stray dog population and the conditions they are subjected to. It is not uncommon to drive down the road and see, there's no way to put this lightly, deceased dogs lining the roadside. And this 'Dead Dog Beach' is very real. I will never ever ever go back to Puerto Rico again because of this. A few months after we came back, I stumbled across the Wynn Dog Rescue out of NH who rescues only dogs from Puerto Rico. I immediately joined as a volunteer, and I'm currently fostering my third dog, a Lab/APBT mix. And I'm willing to bet that the 'organization that recruits volunteers' mentioned in the article is the rescue we work with, Second Chance Animal Rescue, where we get our dogs to be brought stateside for adoption. I can tell you right now, these 'satos' are the best dogs I've ever met. They are eternally grateful for any ounce of love and compassion they give you. If anyone wants to learn more about the plight in Puerto Rico, check out www.scarpr.org, or www.wynndogrescue.com.

[Mollie's Nana]

Man, some people drive me nuts

[SweetSthrnbelle24]

this is the sickest thing I have ever read. I hope they sue the piss out of them.

[littledozer24]

That is an extremely sad story.