Animal control officers charged with improper euthanasia of dogs in Baytown – Chron.com

Three animal control officers are accused of euthanizing dogs without sedating them at the Baytown animal shelter, the Harris County District Attorney's office announced Thursday, May 11, 2017.

Three animal control officers are accused of euthanizing dogs without sedating them at the Baytown animal shelter, the Harris County District Attorney's office announced Thursday, May 11, 2017.

Animal control officers charged with improper euthanasia of dogs in Baytown

Three animal control officers are accused of euthanizing dogs without sedating them at the Baytown animal shelter, the Harris County District Attorney's office announced Thursday.

Prosecutors say the employees' actions were caught on surveillance video at the city's Baytown Animal Control and Adoption Center. The trio faces charges of improperly euthanizing dogs.

"Even prisoners on death row have the right to besedated before they are put down by lethal injection," prosecutor Carvana Cloud said at a news conference Thursday. "In this case to see animals being treated so inhumanely ... was very disturbing. To watch them suffer was just horrifying."

Cloud said the video was not available for release. It may emerge during a trial.

The officers also stuffed the dogs' bodies into plastic bags without first checking the animals' vital signs to confirm they were dead, prosecutors said. Those incidents allegedly happened in May 2015.

One employee euthanized a blond terrier by injecting sodium pentobarbital without using anesthesia, leaving the dog to feel pain, according to charging documents. Prosecutors suspect it happened many more times.

"We know that it was an ongoing issue," Cloud said, calling the practice "inexcusable."

The animal shelter, located at 705 N. Robert Lanier Drive, closed for upgrades in early 2008 meant to keep diseases from spreading among the animals, the Chronicle reported at the time. The shelter in the city of about 75,000 euthanized 775 animals in just four months at the time -- an average of more than six every day.

The shelter saved just 9 percent of cats and 32 percent of dogs in the summer of 2015, according to data reported by the Baytown Sun-- about the same time the employees are accused of improper euthanasia. The "save rate" in the year ending Sept. 30, 2016, improved to 27 percent for cats and 57 percent for dogs.

In comparison, Houston's Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care shelter euthanized only 20 percent of animals in 2015, down from 80 percent a decade earlier, when it drew heavy criticism, the Chronicle previously reported. The Harris County shelter euthanized about 70 percent of animals.

Baytown police launched an investigation after a former employee complained that euthanasia procedures were violated at the animal control center, the district attorney's office said. Prosecutors said they worked with an expert in veterinary medicine and animal shelters.

"When people think of their local animal shelter, most are realistic and recognize that animals are being euthanized every day, but they don't want them to suffer," said Jessica Milligan, Harris County's top prosecutor for animal cruelty.

"The job of an animal control officer is not an easy job, but it requires compassion and empathy," Milligan added in the news release. "It's unfortunate that these particular officers didn't exhibit the compassion towards animals that we as a community expect and Texas laws require."

Tod Brooks, 53, Veronica Jimenez, 33, and Christopher Nightingale, 27, were charged Tuesday with one count each of improper animal euthanasia, a Class B misdemeanor under Texas' Health and Safety Code.

If convicted, the employees could face up to six months in jail and a fine up to $2,000.

Jimenez and Nightingale no longer work for the shelter, but Brooks was still employed as of Thursday, Cloud said.

Although Cloud said the animal shelter was operated by the county, a spokeswoman for the city of Baytown confirmed that the city oversees the facility.

As of Thursday morning, court documents did not list defense attorneys who could be reached for comment.

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Animal control officers charged with improper euthanasia of dogs in Baytown - Chron.com