File photo from Black Diamond Acres
ROMULUS -- An Amish kennel owner was fined $300 after pleading guilty to 74 counts of inhumane destruction of dogs for using a makeshift gas chamber to euthanize animals with carbon monoxide.
The Seneca County Sheriff's Office charged 45-year-old David Yoder of Romulus after an SPCA worker came across a U.S. Department of Agriculture report from July. The report said Yoder euthanized 78 adult dogs and 15 puppies by putting several at a time into a wooden box and piping in exhaust from a gasoline engine.
Yoder pleaded guilty in Romulus Town Court on Friday. He'll have to pay a $205 state surcharge on top of the $300 fine.
The Seneca County SPCA is reacting to the plea and fine handed down by the Romulus Town Justice. Jennie McWhorter said Friday "I was disappointed there were not animal cruelty charges. How can it be inhumane destruction and not be animal cruelty?"
McWhorter says she has taken calls from many people in Seneca County who are upset by the legal outcome of the case. The fine as the sole means of punishment is not enough in McWhorter's view, "that's a $5.00 price tag on each of those lives. I'm really disappointed in it."
The SPCA is also concerned that Yoder still has eleven dogs on his property. The agency does not know whether conditions for those animals have improved.
Yoder told sheriff's investigators he believed his method of euthanizing dogs was humane. The USDA report said Yoder was told to have a veterinarian destroy unwanted dogs in the future.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
