Euthanizing an animal is not easy, even for an expert on the field. During her presentation at the Saskatchewan Pork Industry symposium 2015, Jennifer Woods shared an experience she had with euthanasia on her Alberta sheep farm.

Woods and her family became attached to a lamb after saving it from near death. The bond was particularly strong between the lamb and Woods’ daughter, Ellie, who was nine at the time. They named the lamb Posie.

With a December storm approaching and the family preparing to go away for Christmas, Woods purchased grain and moved the ewes into the barn. A neighbour would do the chores. While they were away, Posie managed to get her head between two panels and chew a hole in a bag of barley. She ate it all.

“She grain overloaded. Grain overload is really nasty in sheep. I got in, treated her and knew within 24 hours she was not going to recover. She had started downhill. It wasn’t a pretty thing to watch.” Sadly, Posie had to be euthanized.

“I walked out to the barn to make that final decision. As I was walking out to the barn, I was saying ‘Please be dead, please be dead,’ so I didn’t have to do it. Then I got in the barn and I looked at her and the thought went through my mind, ‘She is probably going to die in an hour anyway’ and the other side of me said, ‘Dammit, you’re a hypocrite. You lecture people that you can’t do that.’ So back into the house I went. I have a sheep with a cute name and a nine-year-old attached to it.” She told Ellie that Posie had to be shot.

“It was a really cold night and I said, ‘If you want to say your goodbyes do that’ and I went and got my shotgun. I went out to the barn and Posie was there. I apologized to her before I did it. I shot her, as soon as I shot her the first thought in my mind was, ‘What if she was getting better. I just killed her.’

“I’m like, ‘Jennifer, the logical side tells you no.’ Back into the house I go and there’s Ellie crying. She comes up to me and gives me a big hug. A nine-year-old kid gives me a hug and she says, ‘Momma this is really hard on you and I, but it was the best thing we could have done for Posie.’ She got it at nine. Got it and she still does.”

Euthanasia isn’t easy, Woods told those at the symposium. “It really messes with your mind and I get that. I really do. But I think through training and understanding, you can tell yourself and talk yourself through those things, too.

“I believe as an industry we have done a disservice to our producers with the lack of quality of training we put out there. For years, the only training you guys really got on euthanasia was a cartoon head with an X on it. And that was it. So we were taught how to shoot a cartoon. That was all there was. This is an area that is still very sensitive.”

She says a good death, which she says is an oxymoron, involves a minimum of pain, fear and distress to the animal. “How do we do this? We render them immediately unconscious and then they go onto die without regaining consciousness. People performing euthanasia need to have technical proficiency, knowledge and appropriate equipment. “I do a lot of auditing on hog farms; probably 60 per cent of my business is in the hog industry. I am all over the U.S. and Canada doing on-farm auditing. You know what the leading cause of failed audits is? Ninety per cent of the farms I have fail because I have found an animal that required euthanasia that had not been euthanized.

“How many of you have seen all the undercover videos over the years that come out? Almost every one of them has an animal that has not been euthanized that should have been. The most vulnerable part of our industry right now is failure to euthanize in a timely manner.”

She said it is incumbent on managers to hire the right people and give them proper training. “Management sets the tone for a barn. I can tell how good a manager is by the attitude of the staff. I see it at the plant side, I see it at the production side and I see it on the hauling side. What is management’s responsibility? Make sure you hire the right person for the job is number one.”

During the hiring process, Woods said applicants should be asked if they are willing and able to do euthanasia. “A lot of people don’t come from agricultural backgrounds when they walk into your office to apply for that job. It probably never crossed their mind that they were going to have to euthanize an animal. They are there to feed them and take care of them. Nobody probably told them they were going to have to kill some. And that’s a really important question to ask.”

She said things can go bad when employees aren’t willing to euthanize an animal. She cites an example of a pig needing to be euthanized, but the employee working the Friday night shift couldn’t do it. The pig suffered until Monday. “That’s not acceptable.” She said some employees may be comfortable performing euthanasia, but not comfortable with the method being used.

“This is a big thing. I admit, with me, I cannot swing a pig. I do not do blunt force trauma. I even hate watching it. It is something that bothers me. I don’t trust myself to do it correctly. It is 100 per cent dependent on me. With a firearm, I can depend on the firearm. “Research has shown with blunt force trauma that the vast majority people actually close their eyes and hesitate before contact. If there is one technique you really should have your eyes open for, it’s that one. But people don’t want to see it. I am kind of a rarity that I like guns. That is why so many people like C02. They put the lid on. They don’t see. They take the lid off and the pig’s gone.”

Woods said there are three things she asks producers when discussing the appropriate time for euthanasia. *Will she be able to walk off the trailer? The question isn’t whether she can walk on, it’s whether she can walk off. *Look at her or him. Would you eat it? If you look at it and say, ‘I wouldn’t eat that,’ don’t expect somebody else to. *Would you like to see her on YouTube as a product of your farm?

“If you say no to any of these things, those animals should not be shipped and should be euthanized.” She said there a number of methods for euthanizing a pig.

“A gunshot does mass destruction of the brain. Two of the biggest issues we have with gunshot are failure to shoot them in the right place – no, it’s not between the eyes even though that is what the movies always show you – and having a sufficient firearm.” Woods doesn’t consider a .22 calibre sufficient.

“They are far from sufficient. I, personally, am a shotgun fan. They are very powerful and have the muzzle energy you need. They are more forgiving than a smaller bullet because a shotgun leaves a bigger hole.”

She said captive bolt guns are gaining in popularity as a way to euthanize pigs. It is a device that shoots a steel bolt into the head of the animal. “You have to hold it flush to the head or the gun does not work. You need that concussion and that penetration. Concussion is the biggest thing.” She said using CO2 to euthanize is common in the United States.

“A lot of people like it because they can put the animal in the box and then walk away from it. Death is not instant with CO2. It is what we use in the slaughter plants. Maple Leaf just converted to CO2 so we are using it for processing now.” Woods said it is imperative that the employee remain with the animal until death is confirmed.

“Do not walk away. First you confirm insensibility, make sure they are unconscious and then confirm death. She said no matter the method, euthanasia should be done as humanely as possible. “We owe them that.” •

— By Cam Hutchinson