Controversial culling methods spotlighted in draft guidelines

Debate over the ethics of applying ventilation shutdown, a controversial method of killing livestock through heat stroke and suffocation, is again rising to the fore amid the publication in the United States of a new set of professional guidelines for killing animals en masse.

A highly anticipated update to the American Veterinary Medical Association's Guidelines for the Depopulation of Animals has been published in draft form and made available to the association's more than 100,000 veterinarian members. They have until Jan. 30 to comment on the draft ahead of the completion of a final version later this year.

This story was published on Jan. 21, 2025.