ST. PAULS — Animal rights advocates on Wednesday met with county officials to discuss several changes they say would improve conditions at the Robeson County Animal Shelter. The county budged on one issue, but declined to commit on euthanasia methods or cleaning products.

State Rep. Pat McElraft and two advocates, Susan Barrett and Faith Walker, called the meeting with Jeff Bass, shelter manager; Bill Smith, director of the Health Department; and Albert Locklear, who oversees its Environmental Health division. A pattern arose during the two-hour meeting: Advocates presented an issue they wanted addressed, and county officials explained why it wasn’t feasible.

Smith granted one concession at the end of the meeting — using softer beds that were donated in kennels with puppies — but dismissed requests to end euthanasia by heart stick or stop using Ajax and Clorox to clean until after the Humane Society of the United States conducts a review of the shelter.

McElraft, a Republican representative for Carteret and Jones counties, is the primary House sponsor for Davie’s Law, a bill that would establish stricter rules for humane euthanasia in animal shelters. The onslaught of activism against Robeson’s shelter over the past month caught her attention.

“I wanted to see for myself what’s going on out here, what’s rumor, what’s fact, what the state legislature can do to help,” McElraft said.

She started the meeting with her main concern: heart-sticking. Robeson’s animal shelter is the only one in the state that still uses heart-sticking as its primary euthanasia method — most counties euthanize intravenously — and McElraft wants the county to stop using the method before her bill bans it.

Barrett said she sent to Gov. Beverly Perdue 10,000 signatures from people who want heart-sticking stopped at Robeson’s shelter.

Smith pointed out that the county is adhering to current state law, which requires shelters to use euthanasia methods approved by the Humane Society, American Veterinary Medical Association, or American Humane Association. Heart-sticking — puncturing an animal’s heart with a needle containing sodium pentobarbital — a fully-sedated animal is permissible by those entities.

“Why is everyone so adamant about keeping the heart stick?” Walker said, adding that intravenous euthanasia is not only the more acceptable method, but also costs less.

Locklear said in a high-kill shelter like Robeson’s, which euthanizes about 4,000 animals a year, heart-sticking is more efficient. Either Bass or James Fletcher, euthanasia technicians, go down a row of kennels and sedate each animal; animals cannot see each other in their pens. Once the animals are fully-sedated, the technician goes down the row and sticks each animal’s heart.

Smith said if the shelter switched to intravenous, it would have to open two hours later because the method — inserting an IV of sodium pentobarbital into an animal’s vein, which takes two employees — is time consuming.

Bass remained silent for much of the meeting, but retaliated against the implication that he heart sticks animals that aren’t sedated: “You’re either going to take me at my word or not; the animal is hard and fast asleep. I do not enjoy doing this. There’s a lot of good animals that never get adopted. ... I wish we were a no-kill shelter, but that’s not possible.”

Several times Barrett asked Smith directly if he would consider dropping the heart stick; he answered indirectly, saying he would wait for the outcome of the Humane Society review.

“If that one thing could be done, that would speak volumes for the shelter, and for you guys too,” Barrett said, alluding to the anger that has been directed toward the men.

The Humane Society shelter review presented another issue: The national organization wants the county to pay for part of the cost, but so far its proposed costs have been too high. Smith said he won’t sign a contract until it’s affordable.

McElraft was surprised the organization wanted payment at all; she felt that could compromise the legitimacy of the review, raising questions about impartiality. She emphasized that she trusts the national Humane Society’s ability to conduct a solid review, and said she would call the organization and try to reduce or eliminate the county’s cost.

Barrett asked the men to switch from harsh cleaning products to veterinarian-grade cleaners. She said she would help get a year’s worth of vet-grade cleaner donated to the shelter and direct Bass to companies that offer it at low cost, though still more expensive than the Ajax and Clorox the shelter currently uses.

She said a dog had been adopted from the shelter with severe chemical burns, likely from cleaning products. State inspectors cited the shelter in March for mixing Ajax and Clorox, creating harsh fumes that caused irritation in dogs’ eyes and noses. Bass said since that citation, shelter workers have not mixed the chemicals.

Barrett said vet-grade cleansers kill diseases and clean kennels as well as the harsher cleansers, but without the sodium hypochlorite base that can cause chemical burns.

Smith and Bass said their procedure — cleaning with Ajax followed by Clorox to kill diseases — is approved by the state.

“If you meet us halfway on three or four things, soft-heartedly switch, these activists would move on to the next shelter,” Barrett said.

“They’d move on to the next issue,” Smith said.

At the end of the meeting, Barrett asked Bass if he had a dog that she was supposed to adopt on behalf of a friend. She said Bass showed her the paperwork that said the dog was sick and had been euthanized that morning.

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Southeastern Veterinary Hospital in Lumberton and Pembroke Veterinary Hospital offer half-price spaying and neutering to animals adopted at the Robeson County Animal Shelter. For more information, contact the shelter at (910) 865-2200.