By Suzanne Tate
Opinion Page Editor / Bristol Herald Courier
Published: November 12, 2009

Perhaps it would be easier for many readers if they never had to think about Dr. Basil Jones and the grim work he does each Wednesday at the Sullivan County Animal Shelter in Blountville, Tenn.

But Jones, a veterinarian, has to clean up the mess society creates by its failure to take responsibility for its animals. Reporter Claire Galofaro gave a compelling account of Jones’ weekly euthanasia work in a centerpiece story published Sunday.

Some readers have expressed revulsion over the methods used to euthanize animals in local shelters, although such reactions are a reach when you consider that most of our shelters use lethal injection and not a gas chamber, as many communities continue to use.

We all need to remember that Jones’ work is made necessary because so many unwanted animals are filling animal shelters. He prides himself on being compassionate, effective and efficient in his work. “It’s a job that has to be done, and we try to do it properly, try to do it kindly. They still die, but it’s as easy a death as possible,” Jones said.

He must make room for a new crop of animals whose flow into the shelter never ceases. An estimated 70,000 new puppies and kittens are born each day in this country. That is seven times the human birth rate. One unfixed cat and her unfixed offspring will create 420,000 cats in seven years. An unspayed dog becomes 67,000 canines in six years.

And, as Galofaro’s story pointed out, the problem is exacerbated in the South, which has less-restrictive spay and neuter laws. Phil Lane, supervisor of Sullivan County Animal Control, supports creating legislation, as many Northern states already have done, that requires pet owners without a breeder’s license to sterilize their animals.

But Jones disagrees. “I personally think we should try hard to encourage people to do it voluntarily,” he said. “I don’t think it would be proper to make it mandatory. Education alone might get the job done more than a law that forces them to do what’s right.”

Jones has incredible faith in humans, since this is the man who euthanizes dozens of unwanted pets every Wednesday, and has done so since the 1950s.

Read more on the opinion page of the Friday edition of the Bristol Herald Courier.