Will Sanctioned Cruelty Toward Homeless Animals Ever Stop?Heartstick also needs to be banned.

I interview writers: poets, fiction writers, and non-fiction writers. A few years ago I interviewed a poet in his late eighties. He said that the greatest thing that disturbed him and surprised him after all his years of life was the never ending new ways people found to be inhumane to each other. No one has to look far in today's world or in history to see man's inhumanity to man. And it doesn't end with man , it crosses species. Gas chambers for both people and animals show some of the worst inventiveness that human beings possess. If euthanasia of animals is a must in today's world ,then at least do it right. Do it in a way that causes the least amount of suffering. Don't do it like you work in a plant and each wagging tail, each cowering creature is an object to destroy with no thought of their well being. The fact that people see animals as objects reflects the general trend in our world of dehumanization of people and desensitization toward suffering. Many of us are on compassion/ empathy overload.The picture is not totally bleak. There are people who see what needs to be done to stop suffering and they advocate for people, animals, and the environment. The following post was on the Animal Law Coalition site. I feel it deserves our attention.

On April 5th, 2008 Anonymous says:

Some shelters that have stopped gassing have started using heartstick instead. This procedure is ONLY to be done on a fully anesthetized and immobilized animal. One shelter that has it's animals routinely posted by rescue groups has a vet that, on her first day killing this way, killed several CONSCIOUS dogs in the hallway in full view of a family with their young children. This shelter pays her a fee per animal, and she's made upwards of $1000/day if the rescues haven't been able to get the animals out.

Workers in another shelter report the shelter's management refusing to let them do the procedure properly (refusing to supply the needed sedation) and making them perform it on conscious animals.

Heartstick kills the pregnant mother, but not the unborn young. They suffocate slowly.

So, add heartstick to the list of killing methods that are not "euthanasia".

Please Google "heartstick" to get the full details. Basically, however, a large needle is inserted through the lungs into the animal's heart and a lethal injection administered. Imagine trying to do this on a 130 pound conscious Saint Bernard. Heck, try to imagine doing this on a 5 pound Chihuahau - neither is going to hold still for it. Can you blame them?

http://www.animallawcoalition.com/gas-chambers/article/469#comment-976