Electrocution is the most common method employed to kill unwanted animals in Mexico. This archaic practice is not only painful and slow, but is also highly unreliable and is often carried out with makeshift equipment in nightmarish conditions.  Although federal law in Mexico requires the animals be unconscious or sedated prior to being electrocuted, this legality is virtually never enforced and the animals are almost always electrocuted while fully conscious and aware.

In addition to this horrific death, the condition in these animal control centers is equally atrocious. Animals are housed in large pens, with up to 50 other animals. Sick animals are mixed in with healthy ones, nursing mothers are trapped in pens with large packs of hungry dogs, injured animals are left unattended, and critically ill animals are forced to languish until the next scheduled electrocution – which can be as infrequent as once per week. In many of these facilities, food and water are not offered – even to animals being held in bite hold quarantine for up to 10 days.

Compassion without Borders is working hard to change all of this. We are replacing electrocution with intravenous humane euthanasia, as practiced in shelters around the US. We are also sponsoring complete humane overhauls of these facilities, consisting of improved standards of care, employee trainings, and rescue efforts.

We, along with our national and Mexican partners, have successfully eradicated electrocution in the city of Juarez, Mexico’s third largest city. After implementing this amazing change and proving it is indeed a viable option for Mexican animal control centers, we were contacted by state officials and asked to put on a large training and humane euthanasia seminar in the capitol city of Chihuahua. The goal of this training, is to eradicate the brutal practice from the entire state over the next three years. This would be a revolutionary victory for the animals, potentially marking the beginning of the end of electrocution in Mexico!