NC bans gas chambers at animal shelters

A state directive issued this month will largely end the use of gas chambers to euthanize animals at shelters throughout North Carolina. Animal welfare organizations say the practice is inhumane.

A memo from the N.C. Department of Agriculture’s veterinary division gives shelters until Feb. 15 to switch to lethal injections. Gas chambers, which kill animals in a box that fills with carbon monoxide, will only be permitted for “unusual and rare circumstances, such as natural disasters and large-scale disease outbreaks.”

The Humane Society of the United States hailed the change as part of a positive trend in the state’s shelters. “It’s going to lift that stigma that was associated with North Carolina animal shelters,” said Kim Alboum, the group’s state director. “The pound is gone, and I think that’s something to celebrate.”

Patricia Norris, the Agriculture Department’s new animal welfare director, said only four of North Carolina’s 194 approved shelters still use gas chambers. The state is one of only five using gas, but many shelters have voluntarily made the switch in recent years.

‘Whack the chamber’

Wake County removed its gas chamber in 2008. Earlier this year, Johnston County turned its gassing equipment into a work of art, designed to look like the tree of life. Cleveland County ended the practice this year too, and held a fundraiser that allowed donors to “whack the chamber” with a sledgehammer.

Wilkes County is among the shelters that will have to close gas chambers by February. Junior Simmons, the shelter director, said 75 percent of euthanized animals receive lethal injection, with gas reserved for “wilder or feral animals.”

“It’s going to be a little more lengthy, but it can be managed,” Simmons said of the shift toward lethal injection. “We just feel like it was more humane if you had more methods available.”

Granville County is also on the list of remaining gas chambers, but shelter director Matt Katz said it hasn’t been used in months because injections are “far easier to use … they just go to sleep.”

The change has proved costly for some shelters. In Johnston, annual expenses grew from $460,000 with the gas chamber to $700,000 with lethal injection.

“It takes a lot more time, and a lot more paperwork,” Simmons said.

Advocates shifting focus

Alboum says the method makes a big difference for animals as they die. “To put an animal inside a gas chamber, their final moments are alone in a dark box,” she said. “Sometimes they don’t die right away. If we have to euthanize animals, at least the animal is touched, at least the animal has some dignity and some human contact.”

The Animal Legal Defense Fund issued a news release this week saying its recent petition against gas chambers helped lead to the change. But Norris stressed that her directive was based on guidelines from the American Veterinary Medical Association, which changed in 2013 to say that gas chambers aren’t recommended for “routine euthanasia.”

AVMA was the last of three national groups to change its guidelines, and North Carolina policy simply implements recommendations from those groups, Norris said. “When I came on, it was just a matter of here’s how we’re going to clarify the policy,” she said.

With gas chambers soon to be history, Alboum said animal welfare groups can now focus more on spay and neuter efforts and supply drives for shelters. Already, North Carolina is seeing decreases in the number of unwanted pets sent to shelters and fewer animals euthanized each year.

“We want to stop euthanizing adoptable animals,” she said.

This story was originally published December 11, 2014 at 5:29 PM with the headline "NC bans gas chambers at animal shelters."