The Idaho Falls Animal Shelter’s gas chamber broke down beyond repair and they couldn’t come up with the $30,000 to buy a new one. So the shelter is now killing pets by lethal injection. Irene Brown is the shelter manager and while she recognizes that many pet advocates oppose the use of the gas chamber, she maintains that death by gas chamber is just as humane as death by lethal injection:
She said that although the animals do “vocalize” sometimes, it’s mainly because they feel tingly as they fall unconscious.
Ooh, they feel all tingly as they pleasantly drift off… sounds delightful – like a spa treatment!
“They don’t know what’s happening to them, so they vocalize. It’s not because they’re in pain,” she said.
She doesn’t share how she knows this (perhaps she’s an animal communicator who has talked with the spirits of pets she’s killed in the gas chamber?) but I would contend that an animal vocalizing because “they don’t know what’s happening to them” is an animal in a state of panic and fear. Not exactly “humane” to my mind.
The entire process of gassing animals takes about 20 minutes, compared with just seconds using a lethal injection of sodium pentobarbital.
20 minutes. I know the animals are not conscious for that entire time but I don’t know with any certainty how long it takes the average pet to reach a state of oblivion in the gas chamber. And however long that takes, with the pet in a state of panic, choking on carbon monoxide and crying out – it’s too long.
Then of course you have pets who fall outside the “average” gas chamber victims:
Over two years ago a litter of kittens was brought into the Chubbuck Animal Control Facility in eastern Idaho.
The decision was made to euthanize the kittens, which were deemed too diseased and sick with distemper to be adopted out. The litter was dispatched in the shelter’s gas chamber – but there was a survivor.
“One kitten had crawled underneath the others,” said Officer Tim Hancock, director of animal control for the Chubbuck Police Department.
“He’s our shelter cat, Lucky,” said Hancock, explaining that a co-worker took the black-and-white tuxedo kitten home and nursed him to health.
“We figured if he made it, then there’s a reason he made it.”
Too sick to be sheltered but too vital to die in the gas chamber – does this make sense?
I would suggest that Irene try it out herself and if she manages to crawl under some bodies and she survives and she relates that it was a pleasant experience then she can be nicknamed “Tingly” and stay on as the Shelter Manager.
I’m with Mack. Irene should try it for 5 minutes and see how “tingly” she feels.
“Irene Brown is the shelter manager and while she recognizes that many pet advocates oppose the use of the gas chamber, she maintains that death by gas chamber is just as humane as death by lethal injection”
Murdering someone and calling it “humane” is like having sex with a hooker and calling it “celibacy”.
Murder is not humane.
If Ms Brown were about to be placed into a gas chamber or injected with a deadly needle, she wouldnt be smiling about the “humane” treatment she is being given…she would scream bloody murder.
Hypocrite that she is.
According to Wikipedia, this is what happens when a creature is subjected to acute carbon monoxide poisoning:
“The main manifestations of poisoning develop in the organ systems most dependent on oxygen use, the central nervous system and the heart. The initial symptoms of acute carbon monoxide poisoning include headache, nausea, malaise, and fatigue. These symptoms are often mistaken for a virus such as influenza or other illnesses such as food poisoning or gastroenteritis. Headache is the most common symptom of acute carbon monoxide poisoning; it is often described as dull, frontal, and continuous. Increasing exposure produces cardiac abnormalities include fast heart rate, low blood pressure, and cardiac arrhythmia; central nervous system symptoms include delirium, hallucinations, dizziness, unsteady gait, confusion, seizures, central nervous system depression, unconsciousness, respiratory arrest, and even death.”
I’ve never suffered from acute carbon monoxide poisoning, but I’ve had more than one case of food poisoning, I’ve had some nasty headaches and I’ve seen creatures suffer horribly from hallucinations and seizures. I do not understand how any rational being can consider death by acute carbon monoxide poisoning to be humane.
IMO lazy, cruel, cold-hearted people like Ms. Brown advocate its use simply because it’s convenient. Herd a pack of animals into a chamber together, push a button and walk away. She can kill dozens of animals with less effort – and a lot less empathy – than it takes to do a load of laundry.
It’s sad to me that this is even a debate. I wish the AVMA would update their position on gassing pets so gas chamber supporters could quit citing them as an excuse.
Dr. David Penney, a leading expert on CO poisoning in humans and animals has unequivocally stated that it is inhumane. The Association of Shelter Veterinarians has issued a position statement against gas chambers. The AVMA has some catching up to do.
As for the convenience argument, I don’t quite buy it. Killing is destructive to the morale of anyone who might care, but killing brutally is still more destructive. It would tend to weed out anyone with a shred of decency and leave those who are into that. It creates an environment that is that much more actively abusive.
The sounds and sights of gassing the innocent has been on FB. How can anyone see and not have their guts and heart torn out? Mindless and egoistic “humans” proliferate, exploit, abuse and abandon the powerless and voiceless. then we dump the INNOCENT “leftovers” on Death row. And how can we do to the innocent what we cannot do to the worst criminals in our society?!!!!!