HI HR19

Urges counties to require animal shelters under their contracts to discontinue using carbon monoxide for euthanasia and switch to injection-based euthanasia methods.

States that carbon monoxide is inhumane, can take 30 minutes to kill animals, and causes vital organs to shut down before loss of consciousness, particularly affecting elderly, young, and sick animals.

Notes that shelter workers exposed to faulty carbon monoxide chambers risk injury and asphyxiation, with repeated low-level exposure linked to long-term risks of cancer, infertility, and heart disease.

Identifies injection euthanasia as the preferred method endorsed by the American Veterinary Medical Association, Humane Society of the United States, and American Humane Association, as it causes unconsciousness in 5 seconds and is safer and less costly.

Requires each county to submit a report to the Legislature no later than twenty days before the 2014 regular session convening on its progress toward discontinuing carbon monoxide use by animal shelters.