Gas chambers
Some of the United States are still in the dark ages and kill shelter dogs and cats in barbaric gas chambers. An extremely painful and terrifying suffocation death used back in the Nazi days to exterminate many at once.
A practice considered too harsh for our worst serial killers. Yet they kill adoptable, innocent cats and dogs this way.
A practice considered too harsh for our worst serial killers. Yet they kill adoptable, innocent cats and dogs this way.
The details of euthanasia are hard to read but understanding the process is the first step to improving it nationwide. As you can imagine, gassed animals claw, cough, fight with one another, choke and struggle, sometimes for 1/2 hour or more until they become unconscious.
Many animal shelters in America are still using the archaic and cruel gas chamber euthanization method. The practice of gassing involves putting animals into a small room and unleashing deadly carbon monoxide gas, which eventually suffocates them. The elderly and pregnant pets may take several sessions before they die.
There have been reports of animals becoming extremely unsettled and crying during this process. Most choke to death on their own vomit. Some slip in a coma and are buried alive.
It can take up to 40 minutes for a dog or cat to die in a gas chamber, whereas an injection causes loss of consciousness within 3 to 5 seconds and clinical death within 2 to 5 minutes. The most widely-accepted method of euthanasia in the United States is the injection of sodium pentobarbital — a substance that can quickly and painlessly end an animal's life.
With this information in mind, there is simply no reason the gas chamber practice should be allowed to continue.
But this method of killing is still used in 31 US-states today (as per February 2013).
In an ideal world, there would be no animals that were unwanted, but there are millions of cats and dogs destroyed every day in "kill" shelters in the United States.
If an animal shelter determines cats and dogs are to be destroyed, lethal injection is a more humane way of killing the animals. The animal does not suffer an extended period of time.
A letter from a man who gasses helpless animals for a living
Yes, I Gas Dogs and Cats for a Living. I'm an Animal Control officer in a very small town in central North Carolina. I'm in my mid thirties, and have been working for the town in different positions since high school.
There is not much work here, and working for the county provides good pay and benefits for a person like me without a higher education. I'm the person you all write about how horrible I am.
I'm the one that gasses the dogs and cats and makes them suffer. I'm the one that pulls their dead corpses out smelling of Carbon Monoxide and throws them into green plastic bags. But I'm also the one that hates my job and hates what I have to do.
First off, all you people out there that judge me, don't. God is judging me, and I know I'm going to Hell. Yes, I'm going to hell. I wont lie, it's despicable, cold, cruel and I feel like a serial killer. I'm not all to blame, if the law would mandate spay and neuter, lots of these dogs and cats wouldn't be here for me to gas. I'm the devil, I know it, but I want you people to see that there is another side to me the devil Gas Chamber man. The shelter usually gasses on Friday morning.
Friday's are the day that most people look forward to, this is the day that I hate, and wish that time will stand still on Thursday night. Thursday night, late, after nobody's around, my friend and I go through a fast food line, and buy 50 dollars worth of cheeseburgers and fries, and chicken. I'm not allowed to feed the dogs on Thursday, for I'm told that they will make a mess in the gas chamber, and why waste the food.
So, Thursday night, with the lights still closed, I go into the saddest room that anyone can every imagine, and let all the doomed dogs out out their cages.
I have never been bit, and in all my years doing this, the dogs have never fought over the food. My buddy and I, open each wrapper of cheeseburger and chicken sandwich, and feed them to the skinny, starving dogs.
They swallow the food so fast, that I don't believe they even taste it. There tails are wagging, and some don't even go for the food, they roll on their backs wanting a scratch on their bellys. They start running, jumping and kissing me and my buddy. They go back to their food, and come back to us. All their eyes are on us with such trust and hope, and their tails wag so fast, that I have come out with black and blues on my thighs. They devour the food, then it's time for them to devour some love and peace. My buddy and I sit down on the dirty, pee stained concrete floor, and we let the dogs jump on us. They lick us, they put their butts in the air to play, and they play with each other. Some lick each other, but most are glued on me and my buddy.
I look into the eyes of each dog. I give each dog a name.
They will not die without a name.
I give each dog 5 minutes of unconditional love and touch.
I talk to them, and tell them that I'm so sorry that tomorrow they will die a gruesome, long, torturous death at the hands of me in the gas chamber.
Some tilt their heads to try to understand.
I tell them, that they will be in a better place, and I beg them not to hate me.
I tell them that I know I'm going to hell, but they will all be playing with all the dogs and cats in heaven.
After about 30 minutes, I take each dog individually, into their feces filled concrete jail cell, and pet them and scratch them under their chins. Some give me their paw, and I just want to die. I just want to die. I close the jail cell on each dog, and ask them to forgive me. As my buddy and I are walking out, we watch as every dog is smiling at us and them don't even move their heads. They will sleep, with a full belly, and a false sense of security.
As we walk out of the doomed dog room, my buddy and I go to the cat room.
We take our box, and put the very friendly kittens and pregnant cats in our box. The shelter doesn't keep tabs on the cats, like they do the dogs.
As I hand pick which cats are going to make it out, I feel like I'm playing God, deciding whose going to live and die.
We take the cats into my truck, and put them on blankets in the back.
Usually, as soon as we start to drive away, there are purring cats sitting on our necks or rubbing against us.
My buddy and I take our one way two hour trip to a county that is very wealthy and they use injection to kill animals.
We go to exclusive neighborhoods, and let one or two cats out at a time.
They don't want to run, they want to stay with us. We shoo them away, which makes me feel sad.
I tell them that these rich people will adopt them, and if worse comes to worse and they do get put down, they will be put down with a painless needle being cradled by a loving veterinarian. After the last cat is free, we drive back to our town.
It's about 5 in the morning now, about two hours until I have to gas my best friends.
I go home, take a shower, take my 4 anti-anxiety pills and drive to work.. I don't eat, I can't eat. It's now time, to put these animals in the gas chamber. I put my ear plugs in, and when I go to the collect the dogs, the dogs are so excited to see me, that they jump up to kiss me and think they are going to play.
I put them in the rolling cage and take them to the gas chamber. They know. They just know. They can smell the death... They can smell the fear. They start whimpering, the second I put them in the box. The boss tells me to squeeze in as many as I can to save on gas. He watches. He knows I hate him, he knows I hate my job. I do as I'm told. He watches until all the dogs, and cats (thrown in together) are fighting and screaming. The sounds is very muffled to me because of my ear plugs. He walks out, I turn the gas on, and walk out.
I walk out as fast as I can. I walk into the bathroom, and I take a pin and draw blood from my hand. Why? The pain and blood takes my brain off of what I just did. In 40 minutes, I have to go back and unload the dead animals. I pray that none survived, which happens when I overstuff the chamber. I pull them out with thick gloves, and the smell of carbon monoxide makes me sick. So does the vomit and blood, and all the bowel movements. I pull them out, put them in plastic bags.
They are in heaven now, I tell myself. I then start cleaning up the mess, the mess, that YOU PEOPLE are creating by not spay or neutering your animals. The mess that YOU PEOPLE are creating by not demanding that a vet come in and do this humanely. You ARE THE TAXPAYERS, DEMAND that this practice STOP!
So, don't call me the monster, the devil, the gasser, call the politicians, the shelter directors, and the county people the devil. Heck, call the governor, tell him to make it stop.
As usual, I will take sleeping pills tonight to drown out the screams I heard in the past, before I discovered the ear plugs. I will jump and twitch in my sleep, and I believe I'm starting to hallucinate.
This is my life. Don't judge me. Believe me, I judge myself enough.
We have found the above letter on the following source
Don't let them down!
This dog is dead.
But there are others, there are many who can be saved.
Please don't let them down!
Adopt a pet instead of getting one from a breeder or from a pet store.
Sign petitions asking for gas chambers to be banned. Write to your politicians!
Support rescue organizations and adoption organizations.
Help to spread the truth about gas chambers.
Buy one, get one killed!
When you buy an animal from a pet store or a breeder, you're responsible for a new member of the family! You're also responsible for the death of an animal in a shelter who needed a home. If you want to bring an animal into your life, always adopt from an animal shelter.
Every year in the United States, open-admission animal shelters across the nation are forced to put to death roughly half of the 6 million to 8 million unwanted dogs and cats who pour into their overwhelmed facilities. Wonderful, healthy, social, loveable animals lose their lives because of simple math: too many animals and not enough homes.
Every animal bred and born - on purpose or by accident - and every animal purchased from a breeder or a pet shop fills a home that could have taken in a dog or a cat dying for a home at a local shelter. Never breed or buy from breeders or pet stores, and always practice your ABCs - Animal Birth Control - to work toward the goal of a "No-Birth" nation.
ALWAYS SPAY OR NEUTER YOUR ANIMALS, AND NEVER BUY THEM FROM A BREEDER OR PET STORE!
575 dogs and cats are killed every hour in the United States
Did you know...
That 5 million dogs and cats are killed yearly in U.S. shelters?
That is 13,800 every day.
That is 575 dogs and cats killed every hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year!
In six years, one female dog and her off spring can produce 67,000 dogs.
In seven years, one female cat and her off-spring can produce 420,000 cats.
In the 30 seconds time it took you to read this, FIVE pets have been KILLED at shelters across the United States.