Why Do We Let This Happen?

This post was almost too hard to write.

My brain has trouble wrapping itself around the fact that shelters in the United States of America are still killing animals by gassing them to death and by sticking them in the heart.

What’s heartsticking, you ask?

A poison-filled syringe is jabbed through an animal’s chest wall. The needle punctures layers of nerves on the way to the heart. If the syringe pulsates, it is in the heart. If not, the animal gets another sharp stab. Once on target, a press of the plunger injects “blue juice” (sodium pentobarbital) into the heart of an unadoptable animal.

The American Veterinary Medical Association protocols require that animals being euthanized by heartstick be “heavily sedated” or “comatose.” That doesn’t always happen. And you know what else? It’s not always a trained vet tech or a vet performing this procedure. Needless to say, without a medical background, it can be difficult to find the heart of a live animal on the first try.

This very graphic video from what appears to be a hidden camera shows dogs being killed by heartstick in Robeson County, North Carolina.

There are people out there fighting to stop heartsticking. You can join them by signing this petition.

Today I want to address the issue of gas chambers in North Carolina, but bear with me as I digress for one more moment.

Decompression chambers are also used to kill homeless and unwanted pets. Imagine being stuck in a small overcrowded box filled with other terrified people and having all the oxygen drawn out until you literally suffocate. Decompression chambers simulate an ascent to thousands of feet above sea level in a matter of minutes. At many shelters that use this method, decompression occurs at speeds up to 15 times faster than the recommended rate which causes severe pain as the gases in animals’ sinuses, middle ears, and intestines expand quickly. Accidental recompression can occur when equipment malfunctions, when there is a personnel error, or when small animals become trapped in air pockets. Animals must then be put through the procedure all over again.

Now let’s take a look at the situation in North Carolina…

Gas chambers kill animals by poisoning them with carbon monoxide. Some shelters use commercially manufactured units, and others use crudely built units constructed of cinderblock, metal, and wood. Workers put several animals in the gas chamber at once – sometimes cats and dogs together. The animals oftentimes bark, meow, howl, whine, gasp for breath, fight to claw their way out of the chamber, vomit, convulse, and/or urinate and defecate in terror. It takes between 20-45 minutes for animals to die in the gas chamber, and some animals are gassed more than once before they are killed.

In some shelters in North Carolina, they wheel the dead dogs past the cages where the other dogs are being held. Can you imagine their terror? More than 20 counties in North Carolina still kill animals using gas chambers, and North Carolina is home to the highest number of gassing facilities in the United States.

Does any of this remind you of a particularly horrible and shameful period in human history? There are those who shy away from comparing animals to humans, but I think it’s pretty obvious that we are doing to dogs and cats what was once done to humans.

You can get the facts on North Carolina’s gassing chambers from the North Carolina Coalition for Humane Euthanasia, and the Animal Law Coalition also maintains information about gas chambers.

Help Save One, a rescue that recently won Petfinder’s shelter challenge for the state of Rhode Island, organized a rescue effort on January 22, 2010, at Gaston County Animal Control in North Carolina. You can see photos of the rescue here. All of the animals saved from death by gassing at Gaston are up for adoption, and transport can and will be organized for these animals.

This is one of the dogs awaiting adoption after Help Save One's rescue in Gaston County, North Carolina.

Some dogs survive the gas chamber.

Two of these dogs have become well known in the fight to stop this unthinkable method of killing unwanted and homeless pets.

Davie’s family found him alive in a bag of other dead puppies in a dump site in North Carolina. They are working hard to pass Davie’s Law which will outlaw the use of gas chambers in North Carolina.

Back in 2006, Amazing Grace survived being gassed in one of Georgia’s gas chambers. At the age of two, she was placed in a gas chamber with three other dogs for 30 minutes and somehow survived the ordeal. The shelter worker who pulled Amazing Grace out of the gas chamber took her to a veterinarian and is working with other shelter workers to stop the use of gas chambers in their facility.

Gas chambers are not what our shelter workers want either. Many of them are counting on us to help make their jobs more bearable. One North Carolina shelter worker’s story, “A Heartless Job,” has been posted all across the Internet and can be found by clicking here and scrolling toward the middle of the page.

Why is this happening in North Carolina?

There are probably a variety of reasons, but Dr. Ralph Houser, DVM, known to many as Dr. Death, is a big part of the problem. He opened Carolina Veterinary Consulting in 1987 in Pittsboro, North Carolina, and he manufactures gas chambers. He consults to shelters around the state about the “most humane” methods of euthanasia and proceeds to sell them his gas chambers. Am I the only one who detects a slight conflict of interest?

Oh, and did I mention that Dr. Houser demonstrates and teaches his methods on live animals during his workshops? Here’s one of his brochures which was used for a presentation at the Gaston County Animal Control facility where Help Save One is conducting its rescue mission.

You can reach Dr. Ralph Houser, DVM, by phone at 336-376-8134 or by fax at 336-376-0770. His mailing address is 10020 NC Hwy 87 S; Pittsboro, NC 27312-9201. Let him know that the world knows his gas chambers are far from humane.

The bottom line?

PETA, The American Veterinary Medical Association, and The Humane Society of the United States concur that an intravenous injection of sodium pentobarbital administered by a trained professional is the kindest, most compassionate method of euthanizing animals. The American Humane Association considers this to be the only acceptable method of euthanasia for cats and dogs in animal shelters.

If this post was difficult to write, this very graphic footage of a gas chamber in Yadkin County (North Carolina) is almost impossible to watch.

And yet we must watch because we must know what’s going on in our backyards.

Until we all get outraged enough to act on our knowledge of what’s occurring in our animal shelters every single day, nothing is going to change.

Do something today.

Let us stand in solidarity with the animals and with those in North Carolina and across the country who are fighting tirelessly to end the use of gas chambers in our animal shelters and to ensure that euthanasia is only performed by intravenous injection. Write to your local legislators, write to the legislators of North Carolina, and write to President Obama. Why not? Digital media has democratized our society even further and has made it even easier to make our voices heard. Let’s join together and win this battle.

Another one of the beautiful dogs rescued by Help Save One. She's up for adoption!

Eight or nine million animals go through our shelters every year in this country. Approximately four million of those do not find homes and end up being killed. Yes, I said four million. Some are “lucky” enough to die by lethal injection; others suffer extremely horrible deaths in gas chambers and decompression chambers. Some are victims of heartstick. Electrocution, shooting, and drowning kill other animals.

And this happens because our shelters are over-crowded and because we do not do enough to educate the public, change our laws, and adopt our pets.

Please join Let’s Adopt! (USA) on Facebook. We are connecting a new generation of animal activists with one another to make a true difference on the ground.