North Carolina Coalition
FOR HUMANE EUTHANASIA
Shelter employees, community service workers, inmates, or relatives of those indiduals can call North Carolina Department of Labor to report possible hazards at 
The North Carolina Coalition for Humane Euthanasia is dedicated to ending the cruel killing of animals in our state's animal shelters. We believe that taxpayers should not 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. 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 ask for change. More than 250,000 homeless animals are killed in North Carolina shelters each year. According to shelter records and information from employees and volunteers, the majority of animals in many shelters are not feral, sick, or injured. Many are killed for lack of space. 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, all over our state. The animals need you!
Please adopt your next pet from a 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.
Cruel Killing, Funded By Your Taxes
More than a quarter of a million animals die in North Carolina shelters annually, twice the national average. You pay the bill with your taxes. Many of these pets are lost and not reclaimed by their owners in time, or surrendered by their families when they are no longer wanted. 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 do not adhere to the 72 hour hold for lost animals.
Until there are loving homes for all pets, NCCHE asks that the lives of these animals be ended in the most humane manner possible.
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, safest, least stressful, and cost effective. It takes only seconds and the animal falls peacefully asleep, with an overdose of an anesthetic. Injection is typically done in the leg for adult animals, or in the tummy for smaller animals. This should not be confused with intracardiac injections, which are not humane if done without anesthesia.
Carbon monoxide is the most commonly 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.
FOUR government employees who operated gas chambers on a regular basis have died in recent years from heart and lung problems which could be related to exposure to carbon monoxide. Three of those gas chambers had never been formally inspected for leaks prior to their deaths. Will it take the death of another government employee to make it stop? How ironic that tax dollars pay for machines that could kill the people operating them.
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.
Whether unwanted animals die cruelly or compassionately is up to you. Your taxes are funding it! Please contact your county commissioners and ask for changes.
Join us! For more information email nccoalition@yahoo.com
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 were plaintiffs in a lawsuit naming defendants Sheriff Eddie Cathey, Lieutenant Michelle Starnes in charge of animal control.
(click to read exhibits 4 - 7 )
These documents appear to show that young, sick, injured, old and pregnant animals were 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 these categories of animals. Please take a moment to read the complaint here
In October 2008, an agreement was reached to settle the case. The Sheriff and animal control supervisor agreed to follow state laws and proposed guidelines for euthanasia of animals, which require that animals under 16 weeks, pregnant, or near death no longer be killed with carbon monoxide gas. We would like for the county to consider a change to euthanasia by injection for all animals in its care.
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.
