Cat survives 2 euthanasia attempts at Utah shelter

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (AP) — A stray cat that survived two trips to a Utah animal shelter's gas chamber now has a new home.

Officials at West Valley City's animal shelter in Utah say the cat named Andrea hadn't been adopted for 30 days when shelter officials tried to put her to death in October. She survived, so they gassed her again.

Shelter officials detected no vital signs and presumed she was dead after the second try, so they put her in a plastic bag in a cooler. But when they checked the bag, they saw she had vomited on herself and had hypothermia but was alive.

The shelter then decided to stop trying to kill her.

"It was just one of those things where they thought this cat obviously really wants to live," West Valley City spokesman Aaron Crim told the Salt Lake Tribune ( http://bit.ly/ylvSDw ). "Let's give it a chance to find a permanent home."

The newspaper reports the cat has since been adopted and shelter officials are investigating why the gassing failed.

"She's pretty tough, obviously," Janita Coombs, a volunteer with the Community Animal Welfare Society who agreed to take care of Andrea told The Tribune. "She's definitely got some will to live."

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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com