USA: DRUG COCKTAIL IN EXECUTIONS DEEMED ‘TOO CRUEL FOR ANIMALS’

May 7, 2014: A scathing new report by a bipartisan panel of criminal justice experts said some chemicals used to execute death row inmates cause such acute pain that veterinarians in some parts of the US are banned from using them to euthanize animals.
The 200-plus page report, “Irreversible Error,” by the Constitutional Project, says states should use only one drug, be it a government-approved anaesthetic or barbiturate, to carry out lethal injections due to human rights concerns.
“The one-drug method is also preferred over the three drug method by veterinarians for euthanizing animals because the one-drug method is more humane and less prone to error,” the report reads, citing the following example: “Due to the risk that pancuronium bromide could cause an animal to suffocate to death while paralyzed but fully awake, the use of the drug on animals for purposes of euthanasia is prohibited in Tennessee by the Nonlivestock Humane Death Act."
Sarah Turberville, a senior counsel at the Constitution Project, told the Guardian that it was not just one state which held this view. “It is quite true we have executed humans in the United States with drugs that have been prohibited in the euthanizing of animals, not just in Tennessee but in a number of states,” she said. (Sources: rt.com, 07/05/2014)