Infected poultry deserve humane end

To the editor:

I learned that 'agriculture officials have approved a method of killing potentially infected poultry that entails sealing barns shut, turning up the heat and shutting off ventilation systems” ('USDA OKs controversial bird flu plan,” Sept. 19).

Chief Veterinary Officer for the USDA, John Clifford, calls this method of euthanasia 'the fastest way and probably the most humane way to take care of this.”

T.J. Myers, the USDA's associate deputy administrator for veterinary service, said, 'The agency has never used ‘ventilation shutdown.' It takes about 30 to 40 minutes for birds to die of heat stress during the process.”

Paul Shapiro, Humane Society of the U.S. vice president, says it can take as long as three hours for birds to die in this process. Whatever the exact amount of time, this method literally bakes poultry to death.

The USDA's preferred choices for culling infected poultry are suffocating them with foam, or in chambers filled with carbon dioxide, methods widely used last spring. Each of these methods brings a faster, more humane end.

Defenders of the ventilation shutdown method say it allows them to euthanize more birds, more quickly. True. It is also free.

The very least we owe these innocent birds is the most humane end to a life they did not choose.

Peggy Kubczak

Mount Vernon