The head of St. Louis County鈥檚 health department is now acknowledging that she was aware of a proposal to use mass euthanasia at its animal shelter as the county resumed its operation this week.
Dr. Kanika Cunningham, the county's health director, said in an interview on St. Louis on the Air Wednesday that she saw a proposed contingency plan that would use widespread euthanasia to lower the shelter's population. A St. Louis County spokesperson also told 漏 2024 外网天堂 by email that the executive leadership council saw the document.
The euthanasia proposal first came to light through a lawsuit filed in St. Louis County Circuit Court. County resident Lisa Pearse brought the suit against the county, Cunningham and three others who were not named.
Pearse had filed a Sunshine Law request for the county鈥檚 contingency transition plan for the animal shelter ahead of the shelter鈥檚 operations changing hands Friday evening between the county and the Animal Protective Association, which had operated the facility for two years. County officials told Pearse that no such document existed.
Reporting from St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Kelsey Landis uncovered the document in question.
鈥淒efendants refusal to produce an existing and requested record, and denial that the record exists, is not only a violation of the Sunshine Law, but also a knowing and purposeful violation of the law,鈥� the lawsuit states.
When asked why the county did not turn over the document in response to the Sunshine request, Cunningham said it is because it was only a suggestion.
鈥淚t was a suggestion that employees made,鈥� Cunningham said. 鈥淭here's different transition documents that we were using. It was a suggestion. It is not a plan. A plan is something that you execute.鈥�
Cunningham said that staff had come up with the proposed contingency plan based on practices the shelter had used before a 2019 audit that revealed problems at the shelter. She said the idea was 鈥渜uickly dismissed.鈥�
A county spokesperson confirmed to STLPR on Tuesday that no euthanasia had taken place at the shelter over the weekend.
Landis also spoke to St. Louis on the Air about her reporting of the story and talked about the county鈥檚 response to questions about the documents鈥� existence before it was uncovered.
鈥淭he county did, vehemently, deny that they were planning to use mass euthanasia at the shelter,鈥� she said, 鈥渁nd called the lawsuit malicious lies.鈥�
