I'm thinking that some have commented here that "gas is more humane" based ONLY on reading the above article, which discusses possible difficulties with intravenous injections but does not go into the gassing process. I'm sure the AMVA's statements are based on properly running state of the art (ugh) animal gas chambers - but that is not the case in many small towns where machines are old and often do not run properly. I would also bet that some who think these machines are humane are NOT nvolved with the local rescue community or know people who work in shelters - they are - as I suspect - simply commenting on the article

Current Gas Chamber legislation info:
http://www.animallawcoalition.com/gas-chambers

In Mason GA for one, visitors witnessed dogs scrambling annd scrathing as the gas poured in. The AVMA has a number of bad positions - some regular vets work for factory farms. It seems you are only influenced by this one article and have read very little on gassing.

what expert veterinarians? Name a few. I know a shelter director who hates to gas and when a person brought an ill cat to put put down by gas, tried to convince the person to take the cat to a vet for intravenous euthanasia. There is alot of testimoney, not just anecdotes, of animals suffering in gas chambers, and there are plenty of people who are not any kind of extremists working in rescue and vet med who hate gassing.

There is a lot of anecdotal evidence by shelter workers that suffocation in a gas chamber is terribly inhumane. If one reads shelter rescue boards, one knows that some shelters have been known to throw in several dogs and puppies at once - so panicky animals fight while it gets harder to breathe. Some have even put dogs and cats in at the same time. Not all shelters are humanely run by competent, trained staff - especially those in small communities that cannot pay shelter workers much. You can't get the best people for a job if you can't pay them decently. Nor do some shelters have veterinary funds so injured strays cannot be treated nor can puppies or kittens vaccinated. Those little ones often become sick and are put down or die on their own. Those familiar with shelter rescue know that there are both very good shelters and very bad ones. Many of the "bad" ones are that way because they are under-funded.

I was glad to see the author give the definition of "euthanasia" at the beginning of her article. It seems some people just think it means killing an animal. I would not call death by asphyxiation in a gas chamber "euthanasia". Many gas chambers now in use are antiquated machines grand-fathered in when a municipality outlawed them. In Macon Georgia recently, it was observed that it took nearly a half hour for dogs to die. That town has now outlawed gas chambers, as have many other localities.

Shelter managers will attest that dogs and cats immediately sense they are going to die and panic when they are brought into the death room, no matter what form of killing is used. That this country kills millions of unwanted innocent companion animals a year is a disgrace. I wish the major media would constantly remind people of the need to spay and neuter, not let their animals run loose, and the procedure needs to be more affordable too.