CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A city councilman says he was blindsided by the discovery that euthanized animals from the city’s shelter have been taken to a landfill since February due to a broken cremation furnace.“It pissed me off. I was really upset,” Councilman Eric Cantu told KRIS 6 News. “We’re dealing with a being that has a heartbeat and feelings. Killing for space isn’t going to happen on my watch.”
Cantu said he only learned about the situation recently and was further alarmed to find out that the city manager also had no knowledge of it. KRIS 6 confirmed that the cremation furnace used by Corpus Christi Animal Care Services has been out of service for more than two months. In the meantime, the city has relied on its solid waste department to dispose of animal remains at the landfill. What disturbed Cantu most, he said, was not just the lack of communication but the fact that animals are being euthanized to make room at the overcrowded shelter and then dumped. He confirmed that the shelter is euthanizing approximately 100 animals a month.
The figure is part of a report the city plans to discuss at a public workshop on May 8. In a written statement, the city said repairs to the cremation furnace have been delayed while waiting for parts from a Florida-based manufacturer. The statement also said that the process complies with state regulations and that the city is “committed to the humane and responsible disposition of animals in our care.”
But critics say the city has failed to be transparent. Jackie McCollough, a member of the city’s Animal Care and Control Advisory Board and staff member at the Gulf Coast Humane Society, said she was unaware of the furnace outage.“This is something I would have expected to see in a monthly report,” McCollough said. “If this had been brought to the table, there would have been a simple solution.” She said the Humane Society has a functioning cremation furnace and could have stepped in to help.“We couldn’t have done all of them,” she said, “but we would have done it for free.” McCollough said the bigger concern is the lack of communication and openness from city leadership. “Show us what you’ve got. Show us the messy. Show us the not-so-good — and then we might be able to do something about it,” she said.“
They're not garbage,” Cantu added. “We need to do better. The leadership at Animal Care and Control needs to do better.” Cantu urged residents, including animal advocates, to attend Thursday’s public workshop to see the issues firsthand. “To kill an innocent animal for space and then take them to the dump — it doesn’t work well, and it’s just not right,” he said. Cantu emphasized that long-term reform is needed, but so is public trust — and that trust, he said, has been broken.
For Cantu's full interview, see below.
