Abstract
Euthanasia guidelines for domestic animals are well developed because of requirements specified by the Animal Welfare Act (United States Code, Title 7, Sections 2131–2159; as amended, 1990). Equivalent euthanasia guidelines for many non-domestic species are not required by federal regulation. The instructions to authors of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, American Journal of Veterinary Research, and Veterinary Pathology, specifically require that investigations were in compliance with federal guidelines on humane animal care and use; therefore, methods of euthanasia are routinely reported. In order to assess the frequency and comprehensiveness of reporting methods of euthanasia in the zoological medicine literature, 60 recent (within the last 5 yr) articles each from the Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine (JZWM) and the Journal of Wildlife Diseases (JWD) were reviewed. In the JZWM, 377 articles were reviewed to identify 60 articles involving euthanasia, with 15 of the 60 (25%) articles specifying the method of euthanasia. In the JWD, 176 articles were reviewed to identify 60 articles involving euthanasia, with 40 of the 60 (67%) articles specifying the method. Most of the methods of euthanasia reported in this subset of JZWM and JWD articles would be classified as acceptable or conditionally acceptable by the guidelines provided in the 2000 Report of the AVMA Panel on Euthanasia.1
Literature Cited
1. American Veterinary Medical Association Panel on Euthanasia. 2001. 2000 Report of the AVMA Panel on Euthanasia. J. Am. Vet. Med. Assoc. 218:669–696.