Grace's Law, H.B. 788 passes Science and Technology Committee, needs your support

Grace's Law, otherwise known as H.B. 788, has made it through the Science and Technology Committee of the Georgia House of Representatives.  It moves next to the Rules Committee and it needs the support of Georgia's caring citizens if it is to become the law of the land.  The bill now has ten days of legislative session during which to pass.  Proponents of the bill urge Georgia residents to contact their legislators and members of the Rules Committee to express support for this important piece of legislation by Tuesday February 23, 2010.

Grace's law would ban the use of the gas chamber to kill shelter pets in the state of Georgia.  The Georgia Voters for Animal Welfare have identified  at least 11 taxpayer-funded chambers still operational in the state.  Most shelters in the state and most states in the country do not use the gas chamber to kill pets.  It is universally regarded by progressive voices in the animal welfare movement as inhumane. 

Grace, the hound for whom the law is named,  made headlines when she survived the now-defunct Liberty County gas chamber in 2006.  Linda Cordry, the Animal Control Officer who removed Grace, still alive, from the chamber writes:

I know from firsthand experience that the gas chamber is a barbaric piece of equipment. Lethal injection properly administered to sedated animals delivers death rapidly compared to a gas chamber. The latter takes a minimum of 20 minutes and it is not uncommon for it to take as long as 45 minutes, depending on the size, age and health of the animal. Sometimes it is necessary to gas an animal two or three times before they succumb.
I can say without qualification that being killed in a gas chamber is terrifying for the animals and heartbreaking for the humans involved. It is extremely inhumane to both human and animals. It is the ultimate nightmare, and no horror film could even come close to depicting the experience.

She goes on to point out that veterinarians do not use gas chambers to euthanize family pets, not because of cost, but because of the cries made by the dying animals.

In addition to being cruel to animals, gas chambers, which kill with carbon monoxide, are hazardous to shelter employees, who may suffer from chronic carbon monoxide exposure as a result of a leaky chamber or who may even die as a result of carbon monoxide exposure, as one shelter worker in Tennessee did in 2000.  Gas chambers also pose an explosion risk.

"Euthanasia" by injection, or EBI, is the most widely used method for killing shelter pets and is regarded as the most "humane".  Several studies have also shown it to be less costly  than the gas chamber.

The Humane Euthanasia Act of 1990 outlawed the use of the gas chamber in Georgia in most cases, but left loopholes by which some chambers were 'grandfathered' in.  Others are operating in flagrant violation of the law, such as the Cobb County chamber, installed in 1996, years after the Humane Euthanasia Act should have prevented it, and in a populous county.  In 2009, a Superior Court judge issued an order against the State of Georgia Department of Agriculture. 

Grace's Law would close the remaining loopholes and force the shelters of Georgia to stop using this antiquated and abusive method of killing shelter pets.  It is worth noting that since efforts to pass Grace's Law began a couple of years ago, some communities have ceased gassing pets on their own--Macon, Spalding County, Barnesville, and Warner Robbins.  Twenty years after the Humane Euthanasia Act, it is time  to force the remaining holdouts to do the right thing.  In addition to banning the use of gas, Grace's Law would prohibit the use of another abusive killing method:  intracardiac injections in conscious animals, the so-called 'heartstick' injections, as a means of killing shelter pets.

Show your support for Grace's Law by calling or writing your representatives.  Check if your representative is also a member of the  Rules Committee, and if so, ask them to vote 'yes' on Grace's Law.  Emailing is considered less effective, as legislators get an enormous volume of email as it is.  Your message will stand out far more effectively with a letter, phone call or fax.  

Even if your representative is not a Rules Committee member, call, write or fax to ask them to lend their support to this important piece of legislation.  If you don't know who they are, just go to the Project Vote Smart page, type in your zip code and click "go".  If you don't know your zip+4,  click “Don’t know your 9 digit zip?” on the right side of the screen and follow the instructions, then return to the Project Vote Smart page and use it.  Your Representative's name will be highlighted in blue under the "State Legislative" heading.  The bill is not yet before the Senate, so only contact your Representative at this time.  Click on the name to go to their page which will have a link to their complete contact information.

The eleven or so gas chambers in Georgia's shelters cause untold suffering to thousands of animals every year, and it's time for that to stop.  That a 'shelter' in the truest sense of the word is supposed to be a safe haven, yet kills in such a cruel manner is unacceptable. 

We have the chance to change this right now, to make an important step towards a No Kill Georgia.  While banning the gas chamber won't necessarily save lives at first, a pyrrhic victory is better than abject failure any day.

If you don't have the good fortune to reside in the beautiful state of Georgia, please y'all just sit back and watch--have yourself a nice glass of sweet tea and a slice of pecan pie, and let us show you how it's done.  Right now, this is a matter between Georgia legislators and Georgia constituents.  We'll be happy to serve as an example to states who still use the gas chamber after Grace's Law is passed.

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