ACTION ALERTS

** 2008 UPDATE on new rules for animal shelters in NC: We are STILL waiting for the final version of these rules to be approved almost 3 years after the law was passed!

Submit comments to help N.C. animals: due Aug. 31, 2007

The North Carolina Department of Agriculture has proposed new regulations for animal shelters.
 
Animal protection groups and concerned citizens are opposed to the inclusion of carbon monoxide gas chambers as an acceptable method of killing animals, along with many other disturbing details.
 
One new rule will allow animal control officers to leave animals on their trucks for up to one hour in extreme hot or cold temperatures. An animal can die from heat stroke in eight minutes.
 
Read the proposed rules.
 
Gassing causes undue stress and anxiety for the animals, and carbon monoxide exposure can cause long-term health problems for animal control employees. The gas chamber is unreliable; animals sometimes survive and have to be gassed again. Furthermore, euthanizing very young, pregnant, sick, injured, and geriatric animals with gas is not approved by existing state law.
 
Since gas chambers do not meet already-existing standards for a large percentage of the animals in shelters, it would make sense to require the most humane method available for all animals, lethal injection of sodium pentobarbital. This is the procedure used by veterinarians in their offices and is approved by every national humane organization. The cost is comparable to carbon monoxide.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Please submit comments by the August 31 deadline and voice your objection to the proposed new rules for animal shelters. Send comments to:

David S. McLeod david.McLeod@ncmail.net  
N.C. Dept. of Agriculture
1001 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1001
Fax (919) 716-0090

*** Also please email the Head of the Ag Board Steve Troxler - Steve.Troxler@ncmail.net ***

Please include the numbers of the rules you object to. The rule for gas chambers is Section 0600.
 
Below please find comments submitted by In Defense of Animals representative Suzanne Roy.

Statement on Proposed Euthanasia Regulations for N.C. Shelters, July 18, 2007

I am Suzanne Roy, Program Director of In Defense of Animals, an international animal protection organization.  I reside in Hillsborough, N.C. and offer these comments on behalf of our 85,000 members, 4,000 of whom reside in North Carolina.

What a tragedy to spend so much time, energy, and money devising rules to guide the killing of unwanted dogs and cats. None of us should accept the status quo, which sees over a quarter million companion animals killed each year in North Carolina.  But while we work tirelessly to promote spay/neuter programs and reduce overpopulation, we must also deal with the difficult reality of euthanasia.  If we cannot provide these innocent dogs and cats with loving homes, at the very least, we owe them a painless and humane death.

We simply cannot live up to this obligation and still allow the use of the gas chamber. Death by asphyxiation is terrifying, painful and slow. And it is not at all certain.  How many more horror stories must we hear of animals who survived the gas chamber only to be discarded for dead? It happens more than we’d like to know.

IDA, therefore, opposes Section. 0600 of the Proposed Euthanasia Regulations, which authorizes the use of carbon monoxide for euthanasia.  IDA – and our president Dr. Elliot Katz, who is a veterinarian – can say with complete confidence that use of pentobarbital provides the most humane form of euthanasia. The procedure is painless for animals and poses no health risks to those who administer it.  

Some shelters may advocate the gas chamber for euthanasia of difficult to handle animals.  For those facilities, IDA pledges to purchase darting equipment to enable them to remotely tranquilize large, aggressive or otherwise difficult animals prior to lethal injection.  There is no excuse for subjecting any animal to the horrors of carbon monoxide poisoning, and IDA urges the State of North Carolina to ban it completely.

Finally, for obvious reasons, IDA objects to 52J. 0405 and believes that it should be revised to prohibit any individual who has been convicted of animal abuse at any time  from becoming a Certified Euthanasia Technician.  

Thank you for your time and attention to this important matter.

Suzanne Roy
In Defense of Animals
PO Box 564
Hillsborough, NC 27278
919-732-8983
sroy@idausa.org