Animal advocate Gerald Martin said New Westminster's animal control department uses a gas chamber to kill animals.
He said the department may not use the chamber on dogs, however, because they're too noisy fighting for their lives.
"This is not 'euthanasia' by any definition of the word, but barbaric killing. I hold, as do many others, that in fact it's really 'animal murder,'" wrote Martin in an e-mail to The Record.
Dave Wilfong, supervisor Animal Control, said some animals do get the gas chamber.
"That's a common practice throughout the industry," Wilfong said, adding that dogs are taken to the vet for lethal injection. "It's under review and we'll be looking into it."
Wilfong wouldn't comment further and said Animal Control will be issuing a report within the next couple days.
Jon McDonald, manager of engineering and operations, and Jim Lowrie, director of engineering, couldn't be reached for comment at press time.
Coun. Lorrie Williams, who is past president of the Royal City Humane Society, said she is unfamiliar with how Animal Control euthanizes its animals. She said that, to her knowledge, it is a "no-kill facility."
"They don't just do it because they're overpopulated," she said.
Representatives from the Royal City Humane Society couldn't be reached for comment.
In a telephone interview with The Record, Martin, who says he has assisted veterinarians with lethal injections in the past, said Victoria's pound stopped using its gas chamber due to public pressure and media attention.
"It is terrible. It is just horrible," he said. "Some people claim that dogs (in the New Westminster facility) are put in the gas chamber."
Martin said he understands that some animals - if they are too sick to be rehabilitated - have to be put down, but, he says, they should be put down humanely.
"Euthanasia, by definition, is a merciful killing. Once in a while it has to be done," Martin said, adding that, when he assisted veterinarians, animals died peacefully when injected.
"The animals slump and die within five seconds," he said, adding that it can take five minutes for a dog to die in a gas chamber. "They scream and they holler. Cats will claw one another trying to get out," Martin said, adding that some shelters choose the gas chamber because it's cheaper than sending an animal to a clinic to get humanly euthanized as they can gas multiple animals at a time.
He said it cost about $15 to euthanize an animal by injection when he worked at the clinic. Regardless of the cost, he said, the city should pay for the humane killing of animals.
"There's no excuse for it. I know New Westminster is one of the richest cities around," he said.
He added that, if the city only allowed lethal injections, it would probably only cost about $100 a month.
Martin said employees at the New Westminster Animal Control have paid for lethal injections out of their own pockets because they know how cruel the gas chamber is.
"I know this is a horrible way to treat animals."
Lorrie Chortyk, general manager of community relations for the B.C. SPCA, said the society doesn't euthanize healthy animals.
"When we do have to euthanize animals - which is only when they're so critically ill that we just can't save them or if they're so aggressive that they can't be placed back into the community - it's done by injection, euthanal injection.
She said that, out of about 50,000 animals taken in provincially last year, 8,551 were euthanized.
Sarah Dubois, manager of wildlife for the SPCA's Wild Animal Rehabilitation Centre, said carbon dioxide gas is used on some wild animals, but only after they have been sedated.
"CO2 is an acceptable method of euthanasia, as long as the animal is sedated first," Dubois said, adding that it's acceptable through the Canadian Veterinary Medical Standards.
"There's a humane way to euthanize animals under the law," she said, adding that animals must die pain-free.
According to Michael O'Sullivan, executive director of the Humane Society of Canada, putting an animal down by lethal injection is the least cruel way for an animal to die.
"Based on my 40 years of experience, (lethal injection) is the most peaceful," he said, adding that the gas chamber is not very humane. "That is not something we recommend."
He said that no animal that is healthy should ever be euthanized, regardless of how it is killed.
"I think it ought to be illegal," he said, adding that some people bring their pets to a vet clinic to be put down because they scratch the furniture, a reason that he finds appalling.
He said about 400,000 dogs and cats are euthanized annually in Canada.
He explained the importance of spaying and neutering pets: not spaying and neutering a cat, for example, can lead to 420,000 cats in seven years because a cat can have three litters a year. For dogs, it's about 68,000 puppies.
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
He said municipalities influence an animal's fate, not just by how they die, but by forcing people to spay and neuter pets.
He said municipalities can charge people $5 a year for a licence if their pet is spayed or neutered, while charging others $250 a year for those who don't spay or neuter their pets.
© The Record (New Westminster) 2007