Thousands of feral, unwanted and terminally ill and injured animals are routinely euthanized in America each year without incident.
The drugs used are similar--if not identical--to those used in executions of Death Row inmates. Yet horror stores abound of botched procedures involving condemned prisoners.
Ironically, chemical euthanazia was touted as more humane than the use of carbon monoxide gas chambers to snuff animals.
Drugs introduced intraveneously first induce unconsciousness in about 30 seconds, followed by painless death through cardiac arrest or muscle paralysis within seven minutes.
Why the problem with humans, but not animals? The answer probably has to do with the "executioners."
Trained medical personnel--physicians and nurses--are ethically prohibited from participating in life-taking procedures involving humans--forcing prisons to employ untrained personnel to prep and dispatch prisoners.
Medically trained veterinarians and veterinary technicians perform most of the animal terminations, guaranteeing that procedures are properly followed in shelters and clinics. (4 MAY 2014)
