Thank you Tom. That is one of the perceptions that should be dispelled immediately. We
are not talking about paint thinners. Paint thinners are various an sundry in nature, depending on what paint you wan to thin. If you want to thin latex paint -- water is the paint thinner you would use.
But what has become more curious is that the practice of lethal injection may indeed be illegal in some states. I'm always going to make allowances for specially trained/certified individuals to practice lethal injection on animals, so please
do not drag that into the conversation. I'm talking about the average Joe who possesses nothing more than his fur harvesting license.
Folks have been quoting chapter and verse in some or these posts above here. While Ken has it on the authority of the Ohio Dist. 4 manager that this is legal in Ohio, I've made an attempt to look this up in the Ohio Code. The only thing I can find relevant to poisons is that they aren't allowed on arrows. It does define methods for "taking" "game" animals -- which does not include injection. However in Ohio, there is a distinction between "furbearers" and "game quadrupeds" (some like coon, fox, coyote maintain dual status). Only animals classed as furbearers may be taken with traps. And some furbearers (like beaver and otter) cannot be taken by any means other than trapping.
This is where things get very gray. The
only legal means for "taking" furbearers is with approved "traps". So in a technical sense, if I have a beaver in a snare alive, it could be illegal for me to shoot it. However, the current interpretation is that once the trap has captured the animal, the act of "taking" has already occurred and the ultimate dispatch of the animal in the trap is at the discretion of the trapper.
I'll go out on a limb and say that is the way it is in most places. This is one reason I don't want to shy away from discussing methods of dispatch. If trappers are allowed to use their own discretion then they should be as well versed in these techniques as possible. I've never used lethal injection myself, but would like to become versed in this technique.
-- Hal