NCRAOA is North Carolina's leading voice for responsible animal ownership.
Our mission is.....
(1) To educate the public and provide resources and information about animal care and training.
(2) Identifying areas of need and assist communities and individuals in reaching sensible solutions to animal issues.
(3) Supporting reasonable and humane animal welfare laws.
(4) Opposing groups and those individuals that restrict the rights of responsible animal owners.
www.ncraoa.com
***FICTION*** "Gas is pumped in and the animals die slowly and painfully of suffocation."
FACT - They do not suffocate, they do not cry out "in pain". What they do is quickly lapse into unconsciousness as they do with intravenous injections of sodium pentabarbital. Carbon monoxide is odorless and tasteless; in a properly designed chamber it results in unconsciousness in less than 12 seconds. There is no sensation of "gasping" for their last breath. Carbon monoxide binds with the hemoglobin on the red blood cells preventing transportation of oxygen to the brain and carbon dioxide away from the brain cells.
From the AVMA Guidelines On Euthanasia: Advantages -
(1) Carbon monoxide induces loss of consciousness without pain and with minimal discernible discomfort.
(2) Hypoxemia induced by CO in insidious, so that the animal appears to be unaware.
(3) Death occurs rapidly if concentrations of 4 to 6% are used.
***FICTION*** "Only a small number of states in the US still gasses dogs."
FACT - Only 14 states have passed legislation eliminating the use of gas chambers for euthanasia and requiring injection only. Carbon monoxide chambers are routinely used in shelters throughout the country.
***FICTION*** "Animals panic and try to claw their way out. They cry and howl."
FACT - Vocalization is not necessarily synonymous with pain. According to the AVMA guidelines on euthanasia as well as texts on anesthesia, once an animal is unconscious, it feels no pain. This is an important point because with carbon monoxide as well as lethal injection, animals often vocalize even though they are unconscious. For the untrained person, this can be very disturbing.
***FICTION*** "Gas chambers are considered cruel and unusual punishment for people and should not be used for animals either."
FACT - The gas is not the same. Potassium cyanide (KCN) use pellets with a quantity of concentrated sulfuric acid (H2SO4) generates the lethal gas, hydrogen cyanide (HCN), which is used in gas chamber for capital punishment. Shelters use carbon monoxide in the chambers; it's not the same.
***FICTION*** "Shelter workers are at risk for carbon monoxide poisoning."
FACT - Units can and should be inspected and air quality can be monitored to prevent unnecessary exposure. According to the EPA, no standards for CO have been agreed upon for indoor air. Even in our homes, average levels without gas stoves vary from 0.5 to 5 parts per million (ppm). Levels near poorly adjusted stoves may be 30 ppm or higher.
***FICTION*** "Euthanasia by injection is painless and far more humane."
FACT - Another false assumption is that injection is painless. Needles hurt. Most activists think of cats and dogs in comparison to their beloved pets. These are NOT what make up the majority of animals euthanized. Most of the animals have little to no training or socialization, or are aggressive by nature, or are feral (wild) with no desire to be even close to, let alone handled by, any human.
This often requires other control devices such as catch poles, nets, dart guns, injectable sedatives to be administered just so that animal can be restrained for the lethal material to be administered. The level of anxiety and emotional stress for an animal fearful of being handled is actually much greater during the injection process than if they animal were calmly walked into a chamber.
***FICTION*** "All methods of euthanasia must be performed properly."
TRUE! Euthanasia is in itself an unfortunate necessity. The methods of euthanasia, carbon monoxide, sodium pentobarbital, and gunshot in the field, are all accepted by the scientific community as humane, and are humane when properly applied. No method is more human than another, especially in all situations. The goal must be to require proper training and inspection. Science, no human emotion, should determine how to bring a human end to these unwanted animals.
"To ensure the most humane euthanasia for a broad variety of animals as well as safe environment for animal shelter personnel, we should insist that all acceptable types of euthanasia be performed in accordance with the AVMA guidelines on euthanasia."
"One must recognize that there is a great difference between euthanizing a beloved pet in a quiet room with people the pet knows and trusts; from euthanizing animals that are feral (wild) or poorly socialized (fractious) that pose a serious threat to staff while handling during the euthanasia process.
The only animals euthanized by chambers only have had very minimal or no handling at all during their entire lifetime. There is also a big difference between euthanizing owned individual pets from euthanizing large numbers of animals at one time, often with limited personnel who may also have limited training. These differences create many challenges that must be overcome if humane euthanasia is to be accomplished."
"Today, the method of euthanasia in animal shelters across the United States has become quite controversial, and much of the rhetoric has an agenda to severely limit the method of euthanasia to lethal injection. Sadly, most proponents of this agenda perceive each animals sitting quietly while it receives an intravenous injection. This kind of thinking is quite naive and will ultimately result in many animals dying with greater stress."
Robert J. Neunzig, DVM, DABVP (Canine/Feline) Compendium Editorial Board Member - The Pet Hospital Bessemer City, NC
Would you like to do something to stop the death of shelter animals and to see every animal out of a cage and into a home? .........You can!
There are practical steps that every individual who loves and lives with animals can take to resolve the problem.
The tragedy of masses of animals being euthanized in shelters across the United States is a deeply disturbing and challenging problem, emotionally and morally, for all of us who love animals. It is a complex problem in which the symptoms are often erroneously labeled the problem, and one in which the caregivers are often mislabeled the culprits. Even as a lifelong animal lover, for many years I was not aware that the United States has a companion animal overpopulation epidemic and that millions of unwanted animals die in shelters every year. And I was not at all aware that some of my own actions, such as buying a cat from a breeder, were inadvertently contributing to the problem. The purpose of this portion of the web site is to raise consciousness about the facts of overpopulation and shelter euthanasia, and to explore the symptoms, root causes and potential solutions to the problem, especially how every single one of us as individuals has the power to make a huge difference to save animals' lives.
source: http://www.animalsinourhearts.com/shelter.html
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