Facts on Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

• The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) agree that gas chambers should not be overcrowded. In fact, according to the 2000 Report by the AVMA Panel on Euthanasia—the veterinary medical authority on euthanasia—“the CO chamber must be of the highest-quality construction and should allow for separation of individual animals.”
• Another condition of the AVMA panel on carbon monoxide killing is that “the chamber must be well-lit and have view ports that allow personnel direct observation of animals.” The Yadkin County box is a dark, windowless contraption.
• Carbon monoxide is hazardous to personnel because of its toxicity and the difficulty in detecting it. In March 2000, a technician in Chattanooga, Tennessee, died from accidental inhalation of carbon monoxide gas while he was killing animals. This tragedy prompted legislation to ban gas chambers in Tennessee.
• According to the Humane Society of the United States, “Carbon monoxide is a hazardous substance considered especially dangerous because it is odorless, tasteless, colorless, and explosive. Repeated exposure to CO, even at low levels, can result in many serious long-term effects including (but not limited to) cancer, infertility, and heart disease.”
• Old, young, and sick animals are particularly susceptible to gas-related trauma, as they breathe and circulate oxygen and carbon monoxide differently from healthy adult animals, causing a resistance to hypoxia (oxygen deficiency). For these animals, death by carbon monoxide poisoning is slow and highly stressful and therefore unacceptable.
• The American Humane Association’s (AHA) Operational Guide for Animal Care and Control Agencies and HSUS state that gassing takes at least 30 minutes, not counting the time it takes to eliminate the gas in the chamber, remove the animals, check each for vital signs, dispose of the bodies, and clean the machine before the next usage. The AHA operational guide states that it only takes two to three minutes for an animal to die via intravenous injection.
• Lethal injection is cheaper! A study conducted by the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society in September 2000 concluded that for a jurisdiction euthanizing 10,000 animals per year, the yearly cost of gassing averages $13,230 (excluding the cost of intravenous injection as a back-up method) and that the yearly cost of euthanasia by intravenous injection averages $12,700.