As Texas pre­pares to exe­cute Cleve Foster on April 5, a new report released by the ACLU of Texas and Northwestern University’s Center for International Human Rights reveals that pro­ce­dures for euth­a­niz­ing ani­mals in the state are more care­ful­ly reg­u­lat­ed than the pro­to­col for exe­cut­ing death row inmates. In March, Texas announced that it will con­tin­ue to use a risky three-drug pro­to­col for exe­cu­tions, and will replace the crit­i­cal first drug, which is in short sup­ply, with a new drug, pen­to­bar­bi­tal – all with­out an oppor­tu­ni­ty for pub­lic review. According to the ACLU’s report, ​“Texas’ lax atti­tude regard­ing the tak­ing of human life con­trasts sharply with its enact­ment of detailed reg­u­la­tions to ensure that ani­mals suf­fer no pain when they are euth­a­nized. Animal euthana­sia laws pro­vide strict cer­ti­fi­ca­tion require­ments for euthana­sia tech­ni­cians and reg­u­late accept­able meth­ods of intra­venous euthana­sia down to the cor­rect dosage per kilo­gram of an animal’s body weight. By con­trast, the Texas leg­is­la­ture has failed to enact any leg­is­la­tion to ensure that the indi­vid­u­als respon­si­ble for extin­guish­ing human life are prop­er­ly trained and qual­i­fied, and that the drugs they admin­is­ter are both effec­tive and humane.”

For exam­ple, the Texas Health and Safety Code requires that ani­mals must be euth­a­nized only in accor­dance with pro­ce­dures set forth by the American Veterinary Medical Assocation’s Guidelines for Euthanasia. These guide­lines are decid­ed with the par­tic­i­pa­tion of a pan­el of sci­en­tists. In con­trast, the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure allows pro­ce­dures for admin­is­ter­ing lethal injec­tions ​“to be deter­mined and super­vised by the direc­tor of the cor­rec­tion­al insti­tu­tions divi­sion of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.” The cur­rent offi­cial who holds this posi­tion in Texas has no train­ing or expe­ri­ence in the sci­ences. Additionally, the Texas Health and Safety Code also lim­its who can per­form ani­mal euth­a­niza­tions to licensed vet­eri­nar­i­ans and euthana­sia tech­ni­cians, who must meet cer­tain train­ing require­ments in order to be licensed for the pro­ce­dure. In con­trast, anes­the­si­ol­o­gists and oth­er doc­tors do not gen­er­al­ly par­tic­i­pate in exe­cu­tions because of eth­i­cal codes, and Texas law does not man­date a min­i­mum lev­el of train­ing for executions.

(“Regulating Death in the Lone Star State: Texas Law Protects Lizards from Needless Suffering, But Not Human Beings,” ACLU of Texas et al., March, 2011). Read full report. See Lethal Injection and Studies.

Citation Guide