Bulloch Co. stops gassing animals

Southeast Georgia’s Bulloch County has agreed to stop using a gas chamber to euthanize most cats and dogs. Bulloch is one of a handful of counties using a metal box and poison gas to put down stray pets in a practice animal rights activists describe as barbaric.

County Attorney Jeff Aikins says, Bulloch County was just going by the rules identified by the state and a professional veterinarians organization. “Their report on euthanasia identifies that as a humane method of euthanasia,” he says. “At the time we did it, we understood from the Department of Agriculture that it was acceptable and humane.”

In fact, Georgia outlawed the practice in 1990, but some counties were grandfathered in. A judge has compelled the Department of Agriculture to enforce the law. Under the law, Bulloch can continue gassing animals that pose a danger to staff and Aikens says, the gas chamber will remain for that purpose.