GALLATIN, Tenn. -- State and county officials are demanding change after an I-Team report about the Sumner County Animal Shelter.

Report On Euthanasia Moves Lawmakers To Action

The I-Team reported about the method that was being used at the shelter to put animals down.

Video obtained by the I-Team and Channel 4 News showed how Dr. Bill Baber administered lethal injections, called heart shots, to some of the animals.

According to the tape, dogs were brought in by trustees from the local jail, pulled up and lethally injected right into the heart with no sedation and were dead within minutes. Cats were also brought in on catch poles, and the video shows doctors stepping on them to help control them, and then administering the shot.

None of the cats or dogs seen on the video was sedated during the procedure. In some cases, the dogs and cats were being euthanized as quickly as once per minute.

The heart shot is such a last resort that veterinary technicians are prohibited by state law from administering it unless the animals are heavily sedated or comatose.

The Sumner County Animal Shelter’s own guidelines ban the heart shot, also known as intracardiac euthanasia. Some animal professionals have called the procedure inhumane.

But, according to the tape and a trustee working there, it’s happening again and again.

“It's pretty cruel, you know. It's how they do it,” the trustee said.

Since the story aired on Thursday, there has been fallout all over Tennessee.

State and county officials who watched the report are demanding changes and demanding action. After seeing Channel 4's story, state Rep. and longtime animal advocate Ben West called the Sumner County district attorney and the commissioner of the Department of Health requesting an investigation.

He said he is also drafting legislation to make the practice a felony.

"I've already gotten calls from legislators, ‘What are we going to do, Ben?’" he said.

The undercover video has also been reviewed frame-by-frame by investigators with the state Department of Health.

"I've got dogs, and there's no way would I want them treated in this manner,” said Sumner County Commissioner Mike Akins.

Akins has called for a formal investigation into the questionable method.

“I'm sure when this hits the news, there's going to be a whole lot more complaints come across my telephone. We'll just have to do it in committee chambers,” he said.

The practice of giving an animal a shot to the heart is also outlawed by the state for veterinary technicians unless the animal is completely sedated or comatose.

According to the video from the Sumner shelter, dogs' tails are visibly wagging and cats are flailing before they're given the lethal injection.

"It's just a horrible, horrible way for an animal to die,” said former euthanasia technician June McMahon.

Baber told the I-Team that he feels he's become a scapegoat and that with so many strays needing to be euthanized: “This is the ugly truth of what happens in a lot of shelters. … There's a difference between shelter medicine and veterinary medicine. It ain't pretty."

There's also more concern stemming from the video. Baber is never seen checking any animal for a heartbeat or using a stethoscope to make sure the animals are dead when they're taken away.

Checking for life signs is something nine animal professionals said should be done after every euthanasia. A jail trustee assigned to the shelter for three months said he never saw Baber check for signs of life. Baber disputes the claim that he failed to check animals after the injections.

The county executive who hired Baber, Hank Thompson, said the county had already asked Baber to change his methods and stop the heart shots. Baber would not comment on whether or not he was told to stop.

“If he continues to do this heart-sticking in this manner and he's already been told not to do it, do you feel comfortable with him still being here?" I-Team reporter Jeremy Finley asked Thompson.

"No, and I think it's something that can be corrected very easily it seems to me,” Thompson said.

Animal advocates said they don't want Baber to get another talking to.

"The people in charge of that facility need to be immediately terminated,” said Sumner County animal advocate Peg Olea.

Baber said he does the best he can in a difficult job and that he feels he's being blamed for something that happens at shelters all over the state.

On Friday, the shelter said it would no longer allow heart shots without sedation.

The county government also reminded everyone that the public is not allowed back in the shelter.

The person Channel 4 worked with to get the video was a member of the public.

A protest is also scheduled for Monday.