FRUIT HEIGHTS » The piteous parade of homeless animals passing through the Davis County Animal Shelter brings impossible decisions with it every day.

About 15,000 lost or abandoned dogs, cats, livestock animals and every other manner of critter arrive at the Fruit Heights facility each year. And, when efforts to find homes for them fail, hundreds of animals set to be euthanized instead become subjects of laboratory research at the University of Utah.

These so-called pound seizures from shelters in Fruit Heights, Tooele and Lindon stem from a little-known state law that requires government-run pounds to hand over animals to research institutions on demand.

``It is what it is,'' said Davis County animal control officer Curtis Andersen, whose facility is the U.'s biggest supplier of shelter animals. ``We do it because the law requires it.''

Only Utah and Minnesota mandate pound seizures for publicly funded shelters; Oklahoma requires them but lets municipalities opt out.

Seventeen states and Washington, D.C., prohibit the practice, which U. officials say benefits medical research. Animal advocates contend pound seizures violate public confidence in shelters as havens for pets.

The Virginia-based animal-rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, divulged two weeks ago that a PETA operative had secretly worked as an animal-support technician in two U. laboratories for eight months.

Based on her daily notes, photos and hundreds of hours of hidden-camera video, PETA has filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health, alleging systematic mistreatment and neglect of various animals in labs at the U.'s Cardiovascular Research & Training Institute and its Comparative Medicine Center.

The pound seizures were discovered almost by accident, when the PETA operative, since identified by The Salt Lake Tribune as Lindsay West, was sent on an early-morning trip to collect animals from the Davis shelter, according to Kathy Guillermo, vice president of laboratory investigations for PETA.

The assignment was "difficult,'' Guillermo said. "It's not easy to walk through a shelter and see those lovely animals and know that they might end up dead in the laboratory.'' But, she said, the operative risked blowing her cover by refusing to go.

U. officials vigorously deny all of PETA's allegations of lab animal mistreatment but acknowledge use of shelter animals in research for nearly two decades. The research is far from a death sentence, they contend, and gives some dogs and cats a chance to live.

The U. only collects animals from shelters willing to participate, according to Jack Taylor, director of the U.'s Office of Comparative Medicine.

"We only want to work with shelters who believe in what we are doing,'' he said.

Taylor said the U. tries to steer pound animals toward non-lethal experiments and to use strays instead of former pets. Animals are scanned for identifying microchips and held for five days before going into an experiment, both in an effort to locate owners, he said. Lab dogs and cats receive top-notch veterinary care and survivors go into an active volunteer-run adoption program.

About one-third of the 276 shelter animals taken to the U.'s labs in 2007 and 2008 survived experimentation and were adopted, according to data kept by state regulators.

``The public needs to understand that we are all pet owners,'' Taylor, a veterinary pathologist, said of the U. lab community. ``These animals are used in research that is helpful to humans and animals and then returned to a normal existence as soon as possible.''

Utah law says animal pounds "shall'' provide animals to authorized institutions upon request, but shelters across Salt Lake Valley have refused the U. for years and the school has not pushed the matter.

"When we take an unwanted and uncared-for animal, we take on an obligation of caring for them and doing our darnedest to get them adopted,'' said Salt Lake County Animal Services field operations manager Shon Hardy. "And if we can't, we're going to give them a good, compassionate death.''

U. officials contend that making pound seizures optional would bring intense pressure on shelters from animal-rights groups. But the Humane Society of Utah and others say the law's repeal is essential to avoid a perception that shelters are betraying animals as well as the public trust.

``Mandatory pound seizure is disastrous to appropriate sheltering of companion animals,'' said Holly Sizemore, executive director of No More Homeless Pets in Utah, a non-profit aimed at ending animal euthanasia. "It is an archaic law and it puts shelters in a really difficult position.''

The law requires shelters to make "reasonable efforts'' at adoption before an animal goes to a pound seizure and the Lindon, Tooele and Davis county shelters all run robust, even innovative adoption programs.

Yet in spite of spay and neuter campaigns, promotional events, sophisticated systems for matching pets to new owners, and in Davis' case, a 43-kennel mobile adoption trailer, animals still languish unwanted and are put down in large numbers.

Linda Schmidt, a senior laboratory specialist who heads the U. adoption program, says volunteers have placed more than 630 dogs and 200 cats, referred to as "retired research animals," in new homes over the years. By comparison, the Davis County shelter is nearing its goal of adopting out 600 dogs and 350 cats this year alone.

But the possibility of life post-experiment for "death row'' animals helped swayed operators of the Tooele City Animal Shelter and the North Utah Valley Animal Shelter in Lindon to go along with U. pound seizures, officials at both sites said.

"Instead of living their last days out in my facility and then being euthanized, they have a chance to survive,'' said Tug Gettling, director of the Lindon shelter.

The pound seizure law sets the fee for surrendered dogs at $20 and cats at $15. One shelter operator called the amount of money raised by selling animals to the U. ``miniscule.''

But Taylor said having to switch to animals specifically bred for research would cost the U. up to 50 times more. PETA's Guillermo countered that Utah law essentially lets the school buy animals "on the cheap.''

PETA, which opposes all animal testing, says it will put up posters around Salt Lake featuring photos of shelter animals in U. labs, ostensibly in an attempt to locate owners.

Several owners whose animals were surrendered to the U. after being left at a shelter told The Tribune they were unaware that medical research was a possibility. Nor were they given the legally-required option of signing a waiver to prevent it, they said.

Officials at the Fruit Heights and Lindon shelters said they planned to review policies and intake forms to more clearly notify owners.