Fire kills 140 cats, 3 dogs and numerous small animals at animal shelter

A fire swept through the Humane Society of Durham Region shelter early Wednesday, leaving about 180 animals dead, police said.  (The website for the shelter states the number of animals killed are 

In its wake, those who cared for and loved the animals inside were heartbroken. Teen volunteers could only hug each other, sob and place flowers outside the charred, boarded-up building on Wednesday afternoon.

"I was the investigator. I brought in the animals that were abused," said Debby Houghton.

"A lot of these animals were abused in Durham region. They were starving or neglected and came here to be safe," she said, her voice cracking with emotion.

Another woman noted that many of the animals had to fight to stay alive, only to die from the heat, smoke and flames.

Fire had engulfed the building when firefighters arrived about 2:30 a.m.

Emergency crews managed to save nine dogs, a rat and two cats from the building, located on Waterloo Street in Oshawa. About 140 cats died from smoke inhalation, as did three dogs and about 40 small animals including some rabbits and a guinea pig.

The damage to the building is extensive, police said in a news release.

"The building suffered extensive fire and smoke damage estimated at approximately $250,000," it said. "The cause of the fire has not been determined and remains under investigation."

The animals that were saved were sheltered in police vehicles until officers with Oshawa Animal Services arrived to rescue them.

The pets are now at a 24-hour animal hospital in Whitby where they are being examined.

"This is a horrific event and our hearts go out to the Humane Society of Durham Region," says Kate MacDonald, CEO of the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

"The SPCA will be assisting the Humane Society in any way we can during this emotional time."

http://toronto.ctv.ca 

Donate to the shelter or attend one of their fundraisers. 

US to replace animals with robots in toxic chemical tests

US regulators have announced plans to reduce the number of animals used to test the safety of everyday chemicals.

Instead of using animals such as rats and mice, scientists will screen suspected toxic chemicals in everything from pesticides to household cleaners using cell cultures and computer models.

According to the Home Office, more than 3.1m experiments in the UK were carried out on animals in 2006. Of these more than 420,000 were done to test the safety of chemicals. According to the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), more than 100 million animals are used annually in experiments in the US, of which 15 million are used in toxicity tests.

The plans to replace animals in the US, announced yesterday in Boston, will see researchers from the national institute of health and the environmental protection agency develop robotic machines to screen the chemicals. They said if successful the robots could test a greater number of chemicals more quickly.

The results of the research could have implications for the EU's Reach legislation, which requires retesting all synthetic chemicals used in member countries. Critics are worried that the new rules will increase the number of animals used.

The screening machines will be inspired by those developed for medical research, which can quickly test thousands of different molecules in a few days to see if any have potential as useful drugs. "We now are seeing tools newly available to us for chemical genomics research deployed for greater refinement, speed and capacity in chemical toxicity screening," said Francis Collins, director of the national human genome research institute and author of a paper, published today in Science, describing the proposed techniques.

Catherine Willett, science policy adviser at Peta, said: "This is a significant change in the perspective of US agencies, which have historically relied heavily on animal testing out of habit and have been resistant to change."