Drowning is not euthanasia

Historically, there has been considerable discussion within the nuisance wildlife control and trapping communities as to whether drowning is a humane method for killing animals. The issue received more attention in 1993, when the American Veterinary Medical Association's Panel on Euthanasia reaffirmed its position that drowning is an unacceptable method (Andrews et al. 1993). For this article, we make a distinction between euthanasia, a "good death" that occurs without pain or distress (Andrews et al. 1993), and death due to killing by other methods. The central issue in this debate is whether drowning animals are rendered unconscious by great levels of carbon dioxide (CO2 carbon-dioxide-induced narcosis) early in the drowning process and thus are insensitive to the distress and pain associated with drowning. Proponents of drowning cite an article by Gilbert and Gofton (1982) in which the authors stated that drowning animals die from carbon-dioxide-induced narcosis. However, Gilbert and Gofton (1982) did not report any information on levels of carbon dioxide in blood, which is needed before a determination can be made about the acceptability of drowning as a method of euthanasia. We wish to introduce and clarify information concerning effects of carbon dioxide that have been absent in