Oct 12, 11:03 PM EDT
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Pets Hurled Off Bridge in Puerto Rico*

By OMAR MARRERO
Associated Press Writer

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Animal control workers seized dozens of
dogs and cats from housing projects in the town of Barceloneta and
hurled them from a bridge to their deaths, authorities and witnesses
said Friday. Mayor Sol Luis Fontanez blamed a contractor hired to take
the animals to a shelter.

"This is an irresponsible, inhumane and shameful act," he told The
Associated Press.

Fontanez said the city hired Animal Control Solution to clear three
housing projects of pets after warning residents about a no-pet policy.
He said the city paid $60 for every animal recovered and another $100
for each trip to a shelter in the San Juan suburb of Carolina.

Raids were conducted on Monday and Wednesday, and residents told TV
reporters they saw the animal control workers inject the animals. When
they asked what they were giving them, they said they were told it was a
sedative for the drive to the shelter.

"They came as if it were a drug raid," said Alma Febus, an animal
welfare activist. "They took away dogs, cats and whatever animal they
could find. Some pets were taken away in front of children."

But instead of being taken to a shelter, the pets and strays were thrown
50 feet from a bridge in the neighboring town of Vega Baja, according to
Fontanez, witnesses and activists, apparently before dawn Tuesday.

"Many were already dead when they threw them, but others were alive,"
said Jose Manuel Rivera, who lives next to the bridge. "Some of the
animals managed to climb to the highway even though they were all
battered, but about 50 animals remained there, dead."

Rivera said he alerted officials, who spread lime over the animals'
corpses to control the stench.

Animal Control Solution owner Julio Diaz said he went to the bridge when
he heard of the allegations, but remains unconvinced that the dead
animals are the same ones his company collected.

"We have never thrown animals off any place. We always take them to our
local shelter and euthanize them," he said. "They can't prove that they
are the same dogs that we picked up."

Fontanez said he would cancel the city's contract with Animal Control
Solution and said city lawyers were considering a lawsuit.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has a rule allowing
locally owned and operated housing authorities to set pet rules, but it
does not grant authority for a blanket ban or mass confiscation, said
Brian Sullivan, an HUD spokesman in Washington.

Asked to comment on the reported pet massacre, Sullivan said: "This
sickens me if true."

Animal rights activists have long criticized the treatment of pets in
Puerto Rico, where there is no pet registration law and little spaying
or neutering. Animal shelters are overwhelmed and must kill many of the
dogs they receive, according to Victor Collazo, president of the
island's Association of Medical Veterinarians.

One organization recruits volunteers to take dogs home with them on
commercial flights, and sends between 1,500 and 2,000 dogs a year from
Puerto Rico to American shelters.

At least 175 dogs have been rescued in the last couple of years from
Yabucoa Beach, which activists nicknamed "Dead Dog Beach" because of the
strays that roam the coast and are sometimes found dead of disease,
starvation or gunshots. Similar rescue efforts have been undertaken in
the Bahamas and elsewhere in the Caribbean.

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Associated Press writer Ben Fox contributed to this story from San Juan.