“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”

-Mahatma Gandhi

We must stop the use of gas chambers to euthanize animals in overcrowded shelters.

Every year, more than 3 million adoptable animals are euthanized in shelters for lack of shelter space and funding to care for them. This is distressing enough. Although injection is the most humane way to euthanize, gas chambers are still in use across the nation, which is both inhumane to animals and demoralizing to shelter workers.

Fight cruel euthanasia practices! Sign the letter below, learn more and tell a friend.

Carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide poisoning should never be an acceptable way to euthanize an animal in an animal shelter.

If successful, gas chambers can take up to 25 minutes to end an animal’s life. Euthanasia by intravenous injection (EBI) causes loss of consciousness within three to five seconds and death within five minutes.

Most shelter workers wish to hold and comfort a frightened animal in its final moments of life. That act may be the only kindness the animal has ever known. In contrast, gas chambers are both inhumane and demoralizing to the emotional and physical health of human beings and animals.

It is also untrue that gas chambers are cheaper or more cost effective than EBI. American Humane recently commissioned a cost analysis study showing EBI to be the cheaper option. Using data from an animal shelter in North Carolina, the number of dogs and cats euthanized in 2007 was 5,427. The study shows that the cost to use carbone monoxide gas is $4.98 per animal; the cost to use carbon monoxide poisoning without a tranquilizer is $4.66 per animal. The cost to use EBI, however, is $2.29 per animal. For shelters which run on a shoestring budget, this is significant.

Working on humane euthanasia legislation is difficult but vital work. As we seek to find solutions for pet overpopulation and to eliminate the need for euthanasia of healthy and adoptable animals, one of the main priorities of American Humane’s Office of Public Policy is to work for legislation that will ensure every shelter animal facing euthanasia is provided a humane death, while giving shelter professionals the dignity they deserve when facing the difficult reality of having to euthanize unadoptable and/or unhealthy pets.

American Humane celebrated this year the landmark passage of New Mexico’s EBI bill (House Bill 265) and Illinois’ EBI bill (Senate Bill 38), while continuing to advocate for passing EBI bills in New York (Assembly Bill 999/SB 4962), and Pennsylvania (HB 613/SB 672). American Humane also drafted and filed bills this year in North Carolina (HB 6/SB 199, “Davies Law”) and in Michigan (HB 4263, “Humane Euthanasia of Shelter Animals Act.”)

To learn more about your state’s laws and for other resources, please visit http://www.americanhumane.org/protecting-animals/resources.