An official at Boalt Hall School of Law Death Penalty Clinic released a study finding that the majority of states ban the use of a drug for lethal injection on animals, although that drug is still used in human lethal injection.

Forty-two out of 50 states have banned the use of the paralyzing agent in animal euthanasia, instead giving the animal barbiturates until it dies.

But the same paralyzing drug that was banned on animals is still used for human lethal injection, with some saying the process is inhumane.

"(This study) reinforces the idea that the states are using a dangerous drug unnecessarily," said Ty Alper, the clinic's associate director. "They are using a drug that has been banned in the veterinary community for decades and they are ignoring a readily available alternative method of lethal injection."

The standard lethal injection process for humans is a three-drug combination, which includes the paralyzing agent, administered sequentially.

"The first drug anesthetizes, rendering the patient unconscious so they don't feel the second and third drug," said Elisabeth Semel, clinical professor of law and director of the clinic.

The second drug is used to paralyze the person after they are unconscious, while the third then kills the person.

But if the first drug is not administered properly, the person will be conscious when the second and third drugs are administered, Semel said, meaning the patient could feel the pain from the last drug without being able to move.

That paralyzing drug had been removed from the veterinary standards for euthanasia so that the veterinarians could make sure the animals have been rendered unconscious.

"This is a procedure of overdose of anesthetic. It's the procedure that every major animal welfare organization advocates, and in many cases, require for animal euthanasia," Alper said.

Some said the ban was placed upon animal lethal injections because it was determined as safer for them.

"The veterinarians say they don't want to use this paralytic drug because they want to ensure that the animal is not properly anesthetized," Semel said.

Some said the drug was used in standard human execution so the death would be less difficult to watch.

"The reason we use the paralytic drug in human execution is because the people watching the execution don't want to see the twitching. It's about our sensibility," Semel said.

The study will be published in the May issue of the Fordham Urban Law Journal and is the first of its kind to take a nation-wide look at the ban in animal euthanasia cases.

"I know that the method the states are using is unconstitutional, and there is an alternative method that doesn't involve pain and suffering that this (current) procedure they're using does involve," Alper said. "States can't say there is no alternative because 10 million animals are euthanized every year in a way that is more safe than the way they're executing the human being."

Tags: BOALT HALL SCHOOL OF LAW, LETHAL INJECTION, ANIMALS