POPLAR BLUFF, Missouri—This week, the Poplar Bluff City Council voted in favor of shutting down and dismantling the local animal shelter’s gas chamber.
The gas chamber, used to kill shelter animals, was the last known operating chamber in the state of Missouri for domestic animals and the removal will mark the end of the practice in the state. The Humane Society of the United States provided a grant to the Poplar Bluff City Council to support the closure and fund training and other resources necessary for the shelter to transition to a humane model of euthanasia.
Cody Atkinson, Missouri state director for the Humane Society of the United States, said: “We applaud the Poplar Bluff City Council’s decision to end this cruel and archaic method of euthanasia for our shelter animals and admire their leadership in working together to transition to a model that doesn’t subject animals to undue suffering. Missouri was one of two remaining states using chambers to euthanize domestic animals and tonight, we changed that.”
The HSUS is committed to ensuring that the inherently inhumane nature of gas chambers becomes a thing of the past and will continue to lead on this issue nationally to end this practice in every state.