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Gas Chamber EXPLODES at Iredell County Animal Control in Statesville, North Carolina. Read more at http://NorthCarolina.bestfriends.org
The North Carolina Coalition for Humane Euthanasia is a non-profit organization dedicated to ending the cruel killing of animals in our state's animal shelters. Our members are people like you...animal loving taxpayers who do not wish to pay the bill for needless animal suffering. More than 30 NC county and city shelters are still using gas chambers and other inhumane methods to destroy unwanted animals. These innocent pets suffer in their last moments, gasping for breath and wailing until they finally succomb to poisonous carbon monoxide. You pay the bill, and you have the right to demand change.
More than 250,000 homeless animals are killed in North Carolina shelters each year. Most are highly adoptable pets that only need a second chance.
PLEASE adopt your next pet from a kill shelter. If you have time, volunteer as a foster for a local rescue organization. And please, spay or neuter your pets! If we all do our part, we can end this vast waste of life.
Visit http://Petfinder.com to find pets for adoption in your area. North Carolina shelters are only required to hold stray pets for a minimum of 3 days, and owner surrendered pets can be killed immediately. Some shelters have as few as 10 kennels for an entire county animal control facility, and bring in hundreds of animals each week. It is a tragedy every day. The animals need you!
The photo above shows the dump-truck gas chamber at Stokes County Animal Control in Germanton, NC, a half hour north of Winston-Salem. Few animals make it out of the shelter alive.
The Lawsuit
More than a year ago, NCCHE contacted the Humane Society of Union County to alert them to disturbing information found in public records obtained from Union County Animal Services of Monroe, North Carolina. Our two organizations are now plaintiffs in a lawsuit naming defendants Sheriff Eddie Cathey, Lieutenant Michelle Starnes in charge of animal control, Union County Health Director Phillip Tarte, and Dempsey Benton, secretary of North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
The lawsuit asks for an injunction to stop what we believe is illegal use of the gas chamber. (click to read exhibits 4 - 7 )
These documents appear to show that young, sick, injured, old and pregnant animals are being killed in the gas chamber at Union County Animal Services. We believe that North Carolina law specifically precludes the use of the gas chamber in regards to this category of animals.
Please take a moment to read the complaint here
The NCCHE and the HSUC are willing to work with Union County to reduce the number of animals that must be euthanized and to help ensure that animals are euthanized in the humane manner law requires.
Cruel Killing, Funded By Your Taxes
Until there are homes for all pets, NCCHE encourages counties and cities to change to the most humane, safer, cost-efficient euthanasia by injection (EBI). EBI is widely recommended as the kindest and least stressful method for the animals, and the safest, least traumatic method for shelter workers.
Some shelters in North Carolina use crude homemade gas boxes, and others use commercially made models. ALL THREE well-known commercial brands of gas chambers, two made by companies here in North Carolina, have been known to malfunction or expose shelter workers to poisonous carbon monoxide. Homemade gas boxes are dangerous for the same reasons. Why should we as taxpayers continue to fund a method that is potentially hazardous for county and city employees?
Witnesses have seen animals struggling and wailing for up to ten minutes before death in gas chambers, some biting themselves 
and each other in panic, beating their heads against the chamber walls, choking and vomiting. Groups of up to 25 animals are gassed together. Inhalent gases are not approved for euthanasia of baby animals, for very old, sick or pregnant animals, since they may not inhale enough gas to die. Yet in North Carolina, they are often gassed together. Some will not die the first time.
Euthanasia by injection of sodium pentobarbital is the method used in veterinarians' offices, and is recommended by every national humane organization in the United States as the most humane. It takes only seconds and the animal falls peacefully asleep. Injection is typically done in the leg for adult animals. This should not be confused with intracardiac injections, which are not humane if done without anesthesia.
Davie, the dog pictured, survived the gas chamber at Davie County Animal Control in Mocksville, North Carolina in 2005. While Davie was knocked unconscious, he did not inhale enough gas to be fatal. He was found near death in a plastic bag in a dumpster, after being assumed dead and discarded by the shelter. A citizen found him while taking out her trash. Davie is now a happy member of her family.
Carbon monoxide is the most widely used gas for killing in NC animal shelters. Carbon Monoxide poisoning from malfunctioning gas chambers, even at low levels, can cause many health problems for employees who are exposed. A Tennessee shelter worker was asphyxiated to death while unloading dead dogs from a gas chamber, after being exposed to carbon monoxide. In another instance, a gas chamber exploded in North Carolina when a broken light bulb was exposed to the gas. Recent documentation warns that gas chambers STILL IN USE can be an immediate danger to loss of life for animal control personnel. Will it take the death of another government employee to make it stop?
For shelter workers, use of a gas chamber also causes a high incidence of traumatic stress and depression, and is a contributing cause to the high turnover rate of employees.
Whether unwanted animals die cruelly or compassionately is up to you. Your taxes are funding it!
It is a shame that there is not a loving home available for every animal in North Carolina. We encourage you to spay or neuter your pets to keep overpopulation under control, and to adopt your next pet from a kill shelter. The innocent unwanted should not have to die in such a gruesome way. For a list of N.C. shelters using gas chambers, see the links on the left.
Join us! For more information email nccoalition@yahoo.com
