More Than 50 Pets Massacred In 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.

[wolfboi1970]

SINCE THEY ARE DENING THOSE ANIMALS ARE THE ONES THEY TOOK...THEY SHOULD GET THE PET OWNERS DOWN THERE TO ID THE PETS...AND THEN LOCK THOSE SICK SOB''S UP, HOW HORRIBLE OF A HUMAN ARE YOU TO JUST THROW LOVING LIFE FORMS OFF A BRIDGE TO THIER DEATHS... THIS WORLD WE LIVE IN IS OCCUPIED BY DEAMONS AND DEVILS... ITS THE ONLY EXPLINATION WHEN U READ THESE HORRIBLE THINGS IN THE NEWS... TO KILL A HUMAN IS ONE THING BUT AN ANIMAL??? COME ON WHAT HAVE THEY EVER DONE TO DESERVE THIS...ALL THEY DO IS LOVE YOU AND LOOK UP TO YOU, AND GAURD YOU, PLAY WITH YOU.....SAD...VERY SAD

[grammawhamma]

"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."

I am an animal lover...but please American shelters are already over flowing with unwanted pets. They should take the money spent on flying 2000 dogs to America and instead invest it on spaying and nuetering the dogs in Puerto Rico.

[pilgrimsway-2009]

Dear ecr959,
What are you as a community doing about it? If your not stopping what is going on it seems that there is an unspoken compliance about it. You mean all this killing happens without no one knowing?

[phil-in-fin]

Iceman_1960 said,

"I hope Michael Vick has a good alibi."

Despite this tragic story, I had a good laugh at your comment :-)

[ecr959]

Please don''t judge the WHOLE island of Puerto Rico , by the actions of a few cruel, greedy employees. This will blow up and all the sad details will come out. I live here in PR, and nobody in that town, in the government, or in fact around the Island, will say that this was acceptable behavior. People here are in shock, like the rest of the world.

[ecr959]

Please don''t judge the WHOLE island of Puerto Rico , by the actions of a few cruel, greedy employees. This will blow up and all the sad details will come out. I live here in PR, and nobody in that town, in the government, or in fact around the Island, will say that this was acceptable behavior. People here are in shock, like the rest of the world.

[zootallures2]

Ah, but are the shooting up schools to sell a private security aparatus or killing millions for oil, minerals, and fruit?

[iceman_1960]

"More Than 50 Pets Massacred In Puerto Rico"

I hope Michael Vick has a good alibi.

[robertkjjj]

Who cares? Not me. Get a life.

[cdfoxtrot]

Sounds like Puerto Rico is a place to avoid. If this is how animals are treated there, it''s not worthy of my tourist dollars.