At a Utah animal shelter, cats face gas chamber for failing ‘test’ that experts say is flawed – By Kolbie Peterson (The Salt Lake Tribune) / Aug 31, 2022
One way cats can fail the shelter’s temperament test is by hiding in the corner of their kennel, the shelter director said.
At the North Utah Valley Animal Shelter, failing a “temperament test” is essentially a death sentence for cats.
Tug Gettling, the shelter’s director, said the test is meant to determine whether a cat will be aggressive toward people. “We want to make sure that we’re not putting our citizens in danger by adopting out an animal,” Gettling said.
A cat can “fail” the shelter’s temperament test by hissing, swiping, biting, putting its ears back and other behaviors that could be seen as aggressive. But it can also fail by hiding in the corner of its kennel, he said.
In the month of April, almost all cats euthanized at the shelter failed this test, according to animal intake forms obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune through a public records request. Many were euthanized — through the use of a gas chamber — the same day.
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