The gassing of our unwanted companion animals is one of America’s dirty little secrets.  Many people don’t know about this hideous practice but it is not uncommon. 

 

 

What is gas chamber euthanasia?  

 

Euthanasia is supposed to translate to “painless death” but dying in a gas chamber is anything but that.

 

Gas chambers are made of cinderblocks or metal.  Inside these chambers, animals are slowly asphyxiated by poisonous carbon monoxide until they finally succumb to death.  The process isn’t pretty—it typically includes gagging, gasping for breath, vomiting, defecating, fighting/biting other animals, animals beating their heads against the chamber walls and clawing the sides of the chamber to escape. 

 

To learn more, please view our "Kill Box" video here

 

 

 

Does the gas chamber effectively kill the animals inside of it?

 

Some states have laws which mandate that puppies, sick, injured, or older animals are to be spared from the gas chamber since these animals have impaired or underdeveloped lungs and it takes longer for them to die this way, which prolongs their suffering.  However, most shelters gas these animals anyway... 

 

Many animals survive the first round of gassing, only to be put back in with the second group of animals to repeat the process. Some shelter personnel have admitted to breaking kittens' and puppies' necks with shovels or drowning animals in buckets of water when they would not die from the gassing.  Undercover footage has also shown animals being thrown against walls and beaten…..    (you’ll read more about this below)

 

 

Is the gas chamber safe for shelter workers?

Some government officials claim that their states continue to rely on gassing because it “is safer for their animal control officers when they need to handle aggressive animals,” but anyone who has observed the situation would agree that it is safer to sedate an animal and then euthanize them with lethal injection than it is to have to physically drag them into a gas chamber.  

 

Also, there is a great deal of documented evidence that shows that gas chambers often leak carbon monoxide which slowly poisons the shelter workers.  Carbon monoxide gas is odorless and colorless, and shelter workers may not even know they are breathing it. It is a deadly gas, and even inhaling low levels can cause dizziness, tinnitus, blurred vision, nausea, speech impairment, confusion, loss of consciousness and even death. Long term effects even from low level chronic exposure can include blood disorders, cardiovascular disease, neurologic, memory and other cognitive impairment; convulsions, and damage to lungs.

 

You can learn more about the dangers of the gas chamber in this article:

You can read about a gas chamber that recently exploded while animals were inside of it at: http://animallawcoalition.com/gas-chambers/article/562 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If the gas chamber is cruel to animals and unsafe for people too--shouldn't it be illegal?

We think so!  What they're doing to our animals is the same as what Hitler did to people during the Holocaust.  Even convicted rapists and murderers who are put to death are granted a painless lethal injection, not tortured in a gas chamber.

 

Sadly, there is no legislation prohibiting our pets from being gassed in most states…..some of the states that still allow gassing are New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Nebraska, and Michigan.  Of all of the United States, there are only 14 with legislative restrictions regarding the gassing of our companion animals….

You can see a list of the states and their specific restrictions here:

http://animallawcoalition.com/gas-chambers/article/729

 

In North Carolina alone there are 32 shelters that still utilize gas chambers as their primary euthanasia method.  If you want to feel sick to your stomach, you can view this document:

 

http://www.epi.state.nc.us/epi/vet/pdf/snreport2007dogscats.pdf which shows the number of animals “euthanized” in the state during 2007 (2008 statistics are not yet available).  They don't show a "grand total" on that list but we added it up by hand and it comes to...... 218,350 animals.  That’s 218,350 animals that were killed simply because they were homeless....and North Carolina is just one state....

 

The gas chamber has been hidden behind dark shelter walls for too long….but we think the public should know about the horrors of it so that we can act like the democracy that we claim to be and stop putting our tax dollars towards practices that abhor us!

 

Here are some quotes from shelter workers who have witnessed the cruel death of thousands of animals in the gas chamber...

                       

"The animal begins to struggle because it cannot breathe...They wait approximately 10 minutes until the animal stops making sounds…"

            - 2004 North Carolina Department of Labor Inspection Report for Sampson County Animal Control

 

"Volunteers heard a dog barking in a freezer after it went through the shelter's gas chamber and was assumed to be dead. The gas chamber used is sealed with duct tape--Mr. Campbell worried that the makeshift sealer lengthened the time it takes for animals to die."

 

"As many as 10 dogs are gassed together in a 4-by-4-foot steel container. It replaced a cinder-block chamber that leaked, causing some animals to survive the gassing."

- The Charlotte Observer's "Death at the Pound" series in June 2003

 

"After you bring them out, some of them aren't all down. Sometimes we have to put them back in."

            - An Animal Control Officer describing a situation with a newer commercially manufactured gas chamber

 

Doug Clark of the Sampson Independent wrote a gripping story about a litter of puppies that survived the gas chamber at the local shelter in 2004 and were later adopted, only to die the next day. Attempting to dispel rumors of parvo virus in the facility, former employee Dianna Williford admitted, "We had tried to euthanize those puppies a half hour earlier but it just didn't work."

 

The most well known canine gas chamber survivor in North Carolina is Davie, a dog who was found alive in a dumpster after being dumped and assumed dead.  Two local residents were discarding trash at the dump when they heard a whining noise, which turned out to be a crying puppy in a plastic bag in the dumpster. The fearless couple jumped in and rescued the pup among piles of animal carcasses. Author Mike Gunning wrote,

"Apparently, one of the puppies, while knocked unconscious by the gas, didn't inhale enough to be fatal. It appears to have become conscious while in the dumpster."

 

"The chamber is leaking and … there were visible cracks as well as an insufficient gasket around door. There is also no mechanism to facilitate venting of this unit. It appears that this CO chamber even with corrections employed at this time will pose a significant risk to the safety and life of the operator."

- 2007 N.C. Dept. of Ag inspection for Montgomery County Animal Control.

 

"The gas chamber used to euthanize the animals was in clear view of visitors and, some critics say, it didn't always work well. Critics say it killed the animals too slowly or not at all, because of leaks or overcrowding....The gas chamber has been reconditioned and moved to the new shelter."

-A reporter observing a leaking gas chamber in March 1998. The same chamber is still in use, complete with patching compound.

 

 

If you want to read the above-mentioned quotes in full-text with verified sources, you can view this document:

If you want to take a "tour" of some gassing shelters, click to view this slideshow:

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/8530764@N06/sets/72157600269147473/show/