Official Says Gas Chamber Euthanasia Saves Wildlife

In Michigan, one of several states considering a ban on gas chamber euthanasia in animal shelters, at least one county administrator defended the use of carbon monoxide to kill homeless pets as a means of protecting wildlife.

Berrien County Administrator Bill Wolf argued that sodium pentobarbital, the solution used in lethal injections, stays in the bodies of dead animals, which poses a risk for birds feeding on the carcasses in landfills. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, this can be a real issue — eagles and other raptors die more often than we know from pentobarbital poisoning.

There's no question that we should be working to reduce threats to wildlife, but let's put this in perspective. While I don't know the exact numbers on landfill pollution, I can say with certainty that animal carcasses are not the only, nor the largest, source of toxic waste threatening wildlife. The risks to wildlife that do exist from lethal injection can be minimized by burying the animals, cremating them, or properly covering the landfills. And in a state that's already sacrificed so much biodiversity and habitat to create more landfills (Michigan, the third largest importer of trash in the country, has more landfill space than it can use), shelter animals are hardly the waste problem that legislators should be discussing.

Carbon monoxide take up to 30 minutes to kill an animal, a process that is traumatic for both the animals and the shelter employees. Several animal welfare organizations, including the Humane Society of the United States and American Humane Association, support legislation that bans the use of gas chambers in favor of the more humane method of euthanasia by injection. The law in Michigan would affect 10 shelters that still use gas chambers, including Berrien County Animal Control.

In a state that's been hit hard by the economy, the financial concern of switching to injection is a real issue for shelters struggling to keep their doors open. However, a recent study by American Humane showed that the cost per animal of carbon monoxide was more than twice as much as injection. The state of Michigan, thanks to a private citizen, is also offering grants of $5,000 to help shelters cover the costs of switching to humane euthanasia.

Wolf is also worried that this bill is just the beginning, and it could lead to legislation that would prohibit euthanasia altogether. It's a common argument, that one animal welfare law will lead to another, as if a world where animals don't have to suffer is a bad thing. If shelters had the proper resources for adoption, why wouldn't we want to end unnecessary euthanasia?

In the meantime, we can at least put an end to gas chamber euthanasia.

Photo credit: Sister72