This is an excerpt from the letter sent March 7th, 2010 by Joy Bertrand to the Robeson County Manager

Heartstick euthanasia although less expensive andopposed by the United States Humane Society to be applied when the animal is unconscious. The American Veterinary Medical Association says, for example, "Intracardiac injection is acceptable only when performed on heavily sedated, anesthetized or comatose animals, owing to the difficulty and unpredictability of performing the injection accurately."
The Robeson County Shelter is not sedating animals before conducting this otherwise painful procedure. In fact, as will be discussed further below, witnesses have observed the SHELTER WORKERS ENJOY DOING IT.

The video assumed taken in 2001 was aired in YoTtube on February 05th  of 2010 by the rescue organization, Thunder's Angels Dog Rescue, out of Harleysville, PA (Philadelphia area); the video depicts the Robeson County workers killing cats and dogs with the heartstick procedure and as you will see no-one of these animals are sedated.
Thunder's Angels states:

"Robeson County is STILL using heartstick. Robeson and many other NC counties may be able to get away with violating NC law because of the "closed door" policy of these municipal pounds. Since there is no independent supervision, the daily assembly line euthanasia of former beloved family pets are done in secrecy. Many of the 30 plus counties of North Carolina who still do not exclusively use intravenous injection continue to use heartstick, gas, decompression, or gunshot."

"Robeson officials claim that they began complying with all NC laws after this video aired on the news and a law suit was filed, however there is no way to verify such claims due to the "closed door" policy of the pound."

Caution video is very graphic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaEW6rpzV-E

  "Shelter Director Jeff Bass excuse for using heartstick belies the fact that the facility is properly heartsticking animals. To do so would require shelter staff to sedate the animal first. To sedate an animal would require the same IV set-up that would allow the shelter to then simply euthanize using the same IV. So, the saving argument by Jeff Bass is ridiculous, if the shelter is properly administering the procedure."

Robeson 3/3/10 Documenting Robeson County Animal Shelter Documenting Robeson County Animal Shelter in St. Pauls, NC
During our recent rescue mission to Robeson County, the experience was documented. We wanted to show people what is happening at this shelter and encourage everyone to work towards change.
http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/view_shared?p=a7c212ce23a99ba3062885&skin_id=1901

UPDATE this is an excerpt of an article published today March 11th,2010 by News 14 Carolina

ST. PAULS, N.C. People are in an uproar after reading about alleged animal abuses at the Robeson County Animal Shelter.E-mails from the country and the world have been pouring in, including hundreds of posts to Gov. Bev Perdue's Facebook page, demanding something be done about the shelter.

Jeff Bass, the director of the animal shelter, said he's received several death threats.

"People are just going to the extremes,Bass said. Talking about coming down, punching us in the face, do all kinds of other things and it is just really getting out of hand."

Many e-mails being circulated reference a letter that Rachelle Dudgeon, an animal activist, wrote describing her visit to the shelter in January. She tells of dogs with parvo, unheated conditions and rough treatment of the animals by officers. At one point, she describes being in the parking lot and hearing the cries of one dog after another as dogs are put down using the heart stick method without sedating them first.

"I posted it out there because I wanted people in Robeson County community to realize that this is happening in their shelter," said Dudgeon.

Bass says the sound that she had heard was actually the sound of animal control officers using a control stick, a pole with spring-loaded loop at the end, which they use to protect themselves from being bitten by the dogs. They use the poles to transport the dogs from pen to the other so that they clean out the pens and feed the animals.

As for heart sticking, Bass says he has records detailing how much sedation is used for each animal and that it matches the amount they have to order to replenish their stock.

"I'm willing to be able to show that to anybody to prove that these animals are sedated," said Bass

Mr. Bass' statement in this interview confirms the fact that this shelter still uses the heartstick method.

http://news14.com/charlotte-news-104-content/top_stories/623088/robeson-animal-shelter-accused-of-nbsp-animal-abuses?ap=1&MP4

DOCUMENTED FACTS:
In January, 2010, a rescue volunteer observed firsthand that not only is the shelter NOT sedating animals before heartsticking, but the shelte r workers took pleasure in hurting the animals. As demonstrated in the attached letter to Health Director Bill Smith by Rochelle Dudgeon, a rescue volunteer, she was in the shelter to pull animals when:

I heard 2 men talking as they walked down the right side isle [sic]. I heard them enter a kennel and then make the statement -Now suffer on this you son of a bitch.- I thought I heard wrong so I stood up and looked over in the direction they were. They were in the 12th kennel on the far right from the front door. They had a pole in their hand and were jabbing something. Then I heard the most horrific screams from an animal that I have ever heard in my whole life. The men sat over the dog and laughed as it screamed in pain for about 1-2 minutes. Honestly it felt like 10 minutes. I hurried up and crouched back down in the kennel as I didn't want them to see me. I heard them drag the dog off.

Ms. Dudgeon observed these shelter workers commit a felony under North Carolina law. N.C.G.S.A. 14-360(b) and (c) provide:

any person shall maliciously torture, mutilate, maim, cruelly beat, disfigure, poison, or kill, or cause or procure to be tortured, mutilated, maimed, cruelly beaten, disfigured, poisoned, or killed, any animal, every such offender shall for every such offense be guilty of a Class I felony. . . As used in this section, the words torture, torment, and cruelty include or refer to any act, omission, or neglect causing or permitting unjustifiable pain, suffering, or death.

Video taken at the Robeson County Animal Shelter March 3rd, 2010
http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/view_shared?p=a7c212ce23a99ba3062885&skin_id=1603

Letter to Robeson County Manager sent today March 7th, 2010
By Joy Bertrand

Please read the letter that entails information about fraud, animal cruelty and deceit
http://www.facebook.com/K9forlove?v=feed&story_fbid=343252233180#!/note.php?note_id=10150122061905596&id=1124356741&ref=mf

For  this terrible incidents not to go unpunished and not to happen ever again we need laws and regulations for all animal pounds and shelters
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/yes-to-laws-regulations-for-animal-shelters

Euthanasia: The Compassionate Option Article published by PETA Media Center. Injections into the hearts of conscious animals are not acceptable. Inhalants, decompression, drowning, electrocution, shooting, and other methods are also unacceptable because they rarely provide an instant death and cause suffering before death occurs.
Nitrous oxide, halothane, and carbon monoxide gases can be expensive and unreliable and can cause irritation or excitability in animals. Carbon monoxide poisoning causes animals to suffer horribly while they are slowly suffocated. They often scream and go into convulsions while struggling for air. Carbon monoxide poisoning has been outlawed in California, Tennessee, Maryland, and Rhode Island but is still used in many animal shelters throughout the U.S.