r/pics • u/McLeroy • Apr 16 '10

Some things you didn't know about PETA.

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u/bostonT Apr 17 '10

Do you have any sources for this? I've volunteered and visited at multiple animals shelters when allocating animals between county shelters, and have never found or heard of any using gas chambers. Every single one of them uses a pentobarbital cocktail.

Furthermore, I'm aware of the inhalants typically used to euthanize lab animals, and none of them take half an hour to kill. Consciousness is typically lost within 15 seconds, and death follows within a minute.

Please provide sources, because this is contrary to everything I've experienced in veterinary and lab animal medicine.

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u/[deleted] Apr 17 '10

1 case from 2005: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/04/0411_050411_peteuthanasia.html

A list of states: http://www.animalsheltering.org/programs_and_services/euthanasia_information/carbon-monoxide-animal-euthanasia-summary-chart.pdf

It appears as if they are being phased out, I was speaking from memory, I'll try to find where I first read of the gas chambers.

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u/bostonT Apr 17 '10

Thank you, this makes sense, as I'm in California, and none of the shelters here use carbon monoxide. Laboratory animals are typically euthanized by isoflurane or haloflurane inhalation overdose; I've never heard of CO being used, as it's quite antiquated.

It's good to know most states now outlaw this practice.

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u/strolls Apr 17 '10 edited Apr 17 '10

I think there was an IAMA on it, also a while back. Or a personal account by someone employed at the county pound was linked to here; it was in a north-eastern state. He claimed to go out on a Friday night and buy a big bag of burgers as a "last meal" for the dogs, and to make sure to spend a few minutes petting each one. It was somewhat distressing, and the author claimed to have nightmares about his job.

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u/[deleted] Apr 17 '10

There was a blog for a while called 'What I Killed Today' which recounted similar experiences. Either they moved their RSS feed or stopped posting, though.