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Should CO2 euthanasia be banned?
A proposal to ban CO2 euthanasia will please some but many experts consider it to be premature
Carbon dioxide has been used as a routine method of euthanasia for decades, and for some time there has been a debate about how humane the method actually is. It is proposed that the new Directive should ban this form of euthanasia.
However, many experts in laboratory animal science consider that such a move is not justified by the evidence and that further research is needed.
A report from a recent workshop on CO2 euthanasia, soon to be published by the UK National Centre for the 3Rs, concludes that it is premature to ban it as there is no practical alternative that could be said to be more humane.
In addition, it is assumed that the cost of this proposal would simply be the one-off cost of buying the apparatus necessary for an alternative method in every establishment. However, all of the alternative methods of euthanasia require significantly more time and manpower for the same number of animals. This means that the proposal would result in substantially increased costs on an ongoing basis, without any certain animal welfare benefit.