Monthly Archives: April 2017

Church Calls on Philippine President to Modify His War on Drugs … – CBN News

Posted: April 5, 2017 at 5:17 pm

MANILA Pastor Emil Ybanez painfully described the horrific condition of his son AJ's body on CBN's 700 Club Asia program, broadcast from Manila. His son was the victim of an extrajudicial killing.

"A wire was tied around his neck. Duct tape covered his face. His hands tied at his back and there was a very big slash in his neck. It was so big. That was when I broke down. Why did they treat my son like an animal?" he asked.

Pastor Ybanez admits his son was a drug user, but he says he quit drugs and became a police informant just weeks before his death.

AJ is one of nearly 8,000 people who have died since Philippine President Duterte began his war on drugs seven months ago. Most of the alleged drug users and pushers were denied due process.

A creeping culture of societal impunity prompted the Catholic Church to issue a rare pastoral letter condemning the rising death toll.

Catholic leaders called the government's approach to the drug war a reign of terror, aimed largely at the poor.

"The Catholic Church, believing in the gift of life of every Filipino, directly confronts the incident of what's happening now, how to speak and how to get out of the fear that's being planted because of what's happening in the country," Fr. Nonong Fajardo with the Manila Archdiocese told CBN News.

A woman named Linda says she fears for her life. Five of her drug-dealing friends surrendered to authorities, she said, but they were still killed. Linda says poor people like her friends should also be given a chance to change and have a new life.

Poverty is one of the main reasons these men and women resort to selling drugs as their source of income. And this is why the church and human rights groups are calling out to the government to resort to more humane means of solving the drug problem, which is providing basic needs for these families, such as education and livelihood programs.

Friends in the police and military are helping Pastor Ybanez solve his son's case. He believes God is using his son's death as a wake-up call to all Filipinos.

"We should repent as a nation and come together to put a stop to the extrajudicial killings because this kind of evil only begets evil," Ybanez said. "What has happened to my son has inspired me to be more active in a ministry that teaches values formation to policemen, who in turn teach values to students." Farjardo said, "Let's give a chance to the users and pushers because we believe that everybody can change and that is the same thing that we believe that the president can do. That's what we've been praying for that President Duterte would really change his way of running the drug war."

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Why A War On Drugs In Lawrence Isn’t The Answer And Could Create More Problems – WBUR

Posted: at 5:17 pm

wbur COMMENTARY Mayor Dan Rivera's defense of an aggressive police officer, writes Alex Ramirez, is deeply troubling. Pictured: In this file photo, Luis Rivera, of Haverhill, is arrested by Lawrence Police Officers Carmen Purpora, front, and Eli Bernabe, in a supermarket parking lot in Lawrence on March 14, 2006. Rivera was charged in connection with shoplifting, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to sell. (Steven Senne/AP)

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After college, in 2012, I moved back home to Lawrence, and nearly every dayI noticed unfamiliarcars, usually with New Hampshire plates, parked brieflyon the street outside my familys gray triple-decker.

I had grown up in that neighborhood, in that city, and I knew the occupants wereprobably buying drugs. My small street saw a lot of action it was a popular spot to abandon stolen cars. Unmarked police cars camped outside our home for drug busts a block or two away. Once, there was a murder in the neighborhood. During the manhunt, my dad and I were painting our garage. A man the suspect emerged from some nearby trees. Seconds later, a cop popped out of aminivan that had been driving down the street and aimed his gun at the man. My dad and I weredown-range from the cop's barrel. Dad told me to hide in the garage, but the man surrendered within moments.

So I had a gut-feeling about the (usually) white drivers and passengers fromNew Hampshire who parked outside our house,their car engines still running. That feeling was oftenconfirmed when I saw another vehicle pull up beside one of the cars, or a person walk over, and exchangesomething through the window.

My parents and even my grandmother, then in her late 80s, often confronted these strangers. Theyd ask who they were waiting for, call their bluff and tell them to leave. Sometimes theyd try to shout the customers away, bellowing from the porch or a window.My grandma a tough old Lithuanian whose parents were part of the early wave of European immigrants to Lawrence would grab her cane, shout and try to scare them off.

My grandma -- a tough old Lithuanian whose parents were part of the early wave of European immigrants to Lawrence -- would grab her cane, shout and try to scare them off.

These werent the wisest decisions. But my family felt they had to defend the block themselves. Sometimes they'd call the policewith descriptions of the cars outside our homeor ask for an occasional patrol down the street. Their requests went ignored.

Then, a few weeks ago, the Lawrence Police Department and the issue of outsiders buying drugs in the cityexploded. A video showed a Lawrence police officer dragging a young white man out of his carand forcing him to the ground. Locals have criticized the officers conduct, but Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera defended his actions in a now-deleted Facebook post.

The video is not pretty but, not inappropriate, he wrote. He said he understood why the cop got heated with the driver, and maintained that the vehicle had circled the neighborhood, clearly looking for drugs. It is necessary to let the outsiders know, they are not welcome, he added, ending on the all-caps rally cry that LAWRENCE WILL NOT BE YOUR DRUG MALL ANY MORE.

The text of the postcan still be found in a DigBoston column by Maya Shaffer, who also notes past incidents of LPDs questionable conduct. The driver, who was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, denied that he was searching for drugs.

Lawrence has problems with drug-related crimes, but a localized war on drugs wont solve that. Rather than scare white drug addicts away, it will send more young men of color into the prison system.

The content of Rivera's post isnt out of character. His campaign against Lawrences "drug mall" goes back to his early days in office. And his support for the police department was echoed in his initial opposition to Lawrences Trust Act, which prohibitedpolice from enforcing federal immigration law, fearingit would make itharderfor police to do their jobs. (The mayor now supports Lawrences "sanctuary city" status, and is suing Trumpto fightfederal funding penalties.)

However, the rhetoric about outsiders and his defense of the officers behavior is worrisome. Lawrence has problems with drug-related crimes, but a local war on drugs wont solve that. Rather than scare white drug addicts away, it will send more young men of color into the prison system.

Its hard to trust the idea of imbuing police with more reach, power and authority in a Latino-majority city. While there isnt much data nor media coverage on police brutality against Latinos, most information suggests its alreadya problem. In 2016, police killed 183 Latinos, 3.23 per million compared to 2.9 per million for whites. (In raw numbers, police kill more white people than anyone each year.) The numbers were higher in 2015 195 Latinos killed by police, or 3.45 per million. Given that some Latinos may identify as white or black, the toll could be even higher.Latinos who make up 17 percent of the population account for 23 percent of all traffic searches and nearly 30 percent of arrests.

Lawrence has always been a tough city. But being tough cant solve everything, including crime.

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Alejandro Ramirez Cognoscenti contributor Alejandro Ramirez is a freelance writer and the online editor of Spare Change News. He has an MFA in creative nonfiction.

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How Trump Threatens Obama’s Progress in the War on Drugs – Truth-Out

Posted: at 5:17 pm

(Photo: Carlos Garcia)ANTONY LOEWENSTEIN FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

President Barack Obama's drug war legacy is paved with partially good intentions. It differed greatly between his domestic agenda and around the world. The former showed signs of bravery, challenging decades of draconian and counterproductive policy toward drug users and dealers, reducing the number of incarcerated men and women across the United States.

The latter, however, mostly continued failed ideas of the past and consisted of funding and arming some of the most repressive nations in the world, including Honduras and Mexico, worsening apocalyptic gang and drug violence. Many refugees fleeing to the US are a result of these White House directives.

These experiences could shape the Trump administration in its drug agenda, but it's already clear that they prefer re-fighting the lost drug battles of the past, pledging a "law and order" agenda that guarantees rising prison numbers (and higher profits for private prison corporations). This will have zero effect on drug use or the social issues associated with it.

The drug war was never about ending drug abuse, but a battle against people of color. A former top advisor to President Richard Nixon admitted that it targeted antiwar protestors and "Black people."

Today, drug reform is possible with even some of the most aggressive drug war backers of the past advocating the legalization and regulation of many, if not all, drugs. It remains a minority, if growing, view.

In the waning months of his presidency, Obama granted clemency and pardons to over 1,700 Americans in prison for nonviolent federal drug crimes. He used this extraordinary power more than any president since Harry Truman and 1,927 individuals are now free due to his decision.

I recently met one of these men in Washington, DC. Evans Ray was 12 years into a life sentence plus 10 years for distribution of crack cocaine and crack while possessing a firearm when he received Obama's commutation in August 2016. He told me that he wanted to thank Obama for "allowing me a second chance in life, for allowing me the privilege of spending time with my mom and my kids and for giving me the opportunity to be a productive citizen." Ray plans to establish an organization to help recently released prisoners readjust into society.

Despite Obama's important record, tens of thousands of clemency applications were rejected including from prisoners such as Ferrell Scott, who is currently serving life imprisonment without parole for marijuana offenses.

As the Trump administration's domestic drug war agenda becomes clear -- Attorney General Jeff Sessions is threatening to overturn Obama's Justice Department 2009 directive not to prosecute marijuana users and distributors who don't break state laws -- it's now possible to view the Obama legacy in plain view. Obama's domestic drug policies were a combination of sentencing logic, pushing back against harsh prison terms for nonviolent drug offenders, and gradual, sensible moves to transform the fight against drugs into a public health, rather than criminal justice, issue. People with opioid addictions were not acutely criminalized, though vastly more support is required. Many states legalized and regulated marijuana.

Globally, Obama was far more predictable in his drug war agenda. As one drug reform advocate told me recently in Washington, DC, there's virtually no scrutiny in Congress (or the mainstream media) for US drug policy in remote corners of the globe.

Honduras is a notable exception. After the 2009 coup, backed by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, US military funding soared, along with catastrophic violence against civilians. The murder of famed environmental activist Berta Cceres in 2016 ledDemocratic Congress member Hank Johnson of Georgia to introduce a bill in Congress calling on the US to halt all funds to Honduras for their military and police operations.

Honduras and Central America are still key transit areas for drugs entering the US. Washington's support for neighboring countries such as Mexico, along with huge US domestic demand for drugs, has inarguably fueled the soaring death toll across the region.

When I visited Honduras in 2016, I spoke to Laura Zuiga Cceres, the daughter of Berta Cceres, in her hometown ofLa Esperanza. She demanded that President Obama "cut all funding to Honduras, not just military but to private companies. Funding their projects creates a culture of dispossession [for locals]." This message is equally relevant to Trump.

President Trump is likely to continue -- if not accelerate -- Obama's aggressive drug war policies. The Obama administration increased counter-narcotic activities across Africa and Afghanistan, supporting dictatorships in the process, and success rates against drugs were minimal. Afghanistan remains the world's biggest supplier of opium.

Ending the failed drug war at home and abroad requires bravery and a decision to put ethical priorities above a desire to sign lucrative US defense contracts with repressive states across the world. Will President Trump build on the work begun by Obama in dismantling an architecture of domestic drug policy that leads to mass incarceration?

Internationally, Washington has yet to recognize, let alone apologize for, a "war on drugs" that benefits cartels, organized criminals and dictatorships.

Antony Loewenstein is a Jerusalem-based journalist, author of Disaster Capitalism: Making a Killing Out of Catastrophe and is researching the US-led "war on drugs." Follow him on Twitter: @antloewenstein.

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How do you deal with CS:GO gambling? Legitimize it – Ars Technica

Posted: at 5:16 pm

Over the past year, the once underground phenomenon of betting on e-sports hit the mainstream. Valvedeveloper of the first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, one of the biggest games in e-sportsfound itself on the receiving end of angry parents, civil lawsuits, and government intervention that accused it of facilitating unregulated third-party gambling websites.

It didn't help that prominent CS:GO players and popular YouTubers Syndicate and TmarTn (who boast tens of millions of subscribers between them) were found to be actively creating videos that promoted the skin gambling website CSGO Lottoa site the pair jointly owned. The problem hasn't been limited to CS:GO either, with Craig Douglas (aka NepentheZ on YouTube) pleading guilty to running an unlicensed FIFA betting website that the court found was "used by children."

When games like League of Legends attract viewerships as high as 14.7 million peopleand when the prize pools for competitions now hit tens of millions of dollarsthe rise of e-sports gambling was inevitableThe question is: how do you deal with it? While Valve succumbed to public pressure and began issuing cease and desist orders to CS:GO websites (most of which are still online today), the reality of the situation is that gambling sites, government-regulated or otherwise, will continue to runthere's simply too much money on the table.

One estimate puts the size of the CS:GO skin betting marketwhere virtual goods like cosmetic skins are used as a virtual currency to bet on the outcome of matchesas high as $7 billion.

The solutionor at least part of the solution, if the ethical and moral questions around gambling as a whole are put asideis a deeper relationship with the industry, not a weaker one. That's according to Faceitowners of the Esports Championship Series (ECS), a 20-team-strong CS:GO leagueand Genius Sports, a sports data provider to the likes of the FA, the Premier League, and La Liga. In a surprise move, Faceit is following in the footsteps of traditional sports and partnering with Genius Sports to provide real-time match data to regulated bookmakers like SkyBet, Bet365, and Betfair.

The aim, according to Faceit, isn't for the company to offer gambling services itself, but to provide accurate match and player data to bookmakers via Genius Sports in order to help regulate the market. For example, once Genius Sports are able to pull and organise data from the ECS league, it won't just provide it to bookmakers, it will also analyse it for irregularities. By comparing the results to betting activity, Genius Sports can in theory help point out irregularities that indicate match fixing has taken place. The presence of such monitoring may even be enough to deter match fixers from targeting the ECS in the first place.

Naturally, Genius Sports charges bookmakers for its services, but Faceit has much to gain too. Aside from Genius Sports' analysis potentially pointing out irregularities within the ECS, the partnership will be a boon to potential advertisers worried about the scandals that have rocked e-sports over the past year. With more advertisers comes more prize money, more teams, and in theory more viewers. Genius Sports will also run workshops for players and teams as part of the dealas it already does for its partners in traditional sportswhich will educate them on the rules, regulations, and ethics of gambling.

"The main thing is building up awareness," explained Genius Sports VP Sean Conroy to Ars. "Sometimes you have athletes that don't necessarily understand exactly what the rules and regulations are. They don't don't know about passing information to an outside person that's mining for information for an upcoming event. Once that person has acquired that information, they take it away, they place bets, and they come back and say 'here's your money, thanks for passing me all that information.' Suddenly the athlete realises they've been duped. That sort of thing is common in traditional sports, and the first line of defence is the players. Education and really understanding what they can and can't do is the number one thing."

Of course, even with the best of intentions and with the right data at their disposal, numerous sports are affected by match fixing. Just yesterday, Filippo Vito di Perrothe Italian manager of third division Spanish football club Eldensewas arrested for for suspected match fixing following a 12-0 defeat to Barcelona in La Ligaone of the leagues that Genius Sports works with. In 2014, an investigation by the Mail on Sunday revealed that footballers suspected of being involved in match-fixing regularly played at English clubs with the knowledge of the FA.

E-sports presents some unique challenges too, not least of which are the close relationships players have with fans, and thus potential fixers.

"In the wake of skin gambling, we monitored all the big websites and we saw liquidity there," explained Genius Sports' head of e-sports Moritz Maurer. "Something you see that wouldn't be possible in football or basketball is that you have a pro-player that's friends with someone on Steam that's a high-roller on CSGO Lounge. That's the sort of connection that invites misconduct. Because skin gambling came out of nowhere to become a billion dollar industry, the structure isn't there, and the education level is very low."

Partnerships like Faceit's with Genius Sports won't change the skin gambling industry overnight, nor will it ultimately solve any of gambling's ethical or moral quandaries. But as e-sports continues its march towards mainstream acceptance with slots on TV networks like ESPN and growth outside of Twitch on YouTube, the need for tighter regulation becomes far greater. Faceit might be leading the charge in helping to legitimise e-sports, but other teams, players, and leagues will no doubt soon follow.

"If you're serious about your business, you take any threat to it seriously," says Faceit's chief strategy officer Kurt Pakendorf. "If you're serious about e-sports and you're serious about a league, you also take that seriously. And to make sure your e-sports league is successful, you have to make it appealing to the teams and the players and the brand and sponsorships and so on. For us, this is a step that's critical to what we're doing. It's a step that brings certainty to the business. If we talk to big endemic and non-endemic brands we are able to address this issue head-on. It's the right thing to do."

This post originated on Ars Technica UK

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State House Approves Airport Tablet Gambling Bill – CBS Pittsburgh / KDKA

Posted: at 5:16 pm

April 5, 2017 2:32 PM

(Photo Credit: KDKA)

PITTSBURGH The State House approved a bill on Tuesday that would allow limited gambling in some airports in western Pennsylvania.

According to the Tribune Review, tablet gambling would be allowed at eight local airports, including Pittsburgh International and Arnold Palmer Regional Airport.

Gambling would be limited to the boarding areas of the airport. By limiting the amount of people who can gamble, officials say the risk of turning the airport into a casino-type establishment would be low.

Standard gambling laws would apply; Travelers would still have to be at least 21 years old to play.

Casinos which currently have slot machines would be allowed to apply for an airport gaming certificate. Approved casinos would then pay a one-time, $1 million fee, as well as 14 percent of their daily gross revenue from their airport games.

The bill still has to be approved by the State Senate.

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Court ruling could boost South Florida gambling – Story | WOFL – Fox 35 Orlando

Posted: at 5:16 pm

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (NSF) - In a decision that opens the door for a poker room in downtown Miami --- and possibly others throughout South Florida --- an appeals court on Tuesday decided that gambling regulators were wrong to deny a new pari-mutuel permit to a Miami operator.

The 1st District Court of Appeal decision is a major victory for West Flagler Associates, which operates Magic City Casino in Miami and plans to open a cardroom downtown.

The dispute between West Flagler and the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation, centers on summer jai alai permits, the source of several previous legal challenges. The permits allow pari-mutuels to operate lucrative cardrooms.

The case stems from a Florida law that creates the possibility of converting other pari-mutuel permits to summer jai alai permits. The law allows Miami-Dade and Broward pari-mutuels that have the lowest betting handle for two consecutive years to convert to summer jai alai permits. But if those pari-mutuels do not seek conversion, other facilities can seek the permits.

In 2015, West Flagler applied for a summer jai alai permit based on the handle from 2012 and 2013 after Hialeah Park Race Track did not seek to convert its permit to a summer jai alai permit.

But gambling regulators rejected West Flagler's application, arguing that the statute only allowed the granting of a new summer jai alai permit based on "the two consecutive years next prior to filing an application."

Because West Flagler's application was filed in 2015, "your application is incapable of being approved," the Division of Pari-mutuel Wagering wrote to John Lockwood, a lawyer representing the pari-mutuel, in September 2015.

But, siding with Lockwood's arguments Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal found that the language in the statute regarding the "two next years prior" only applied to pari-mutuels that want to convert their permits to summer jai alai permits, not to pari-mutuels seeking new permits.

The "plain meaning" of the law "creates two separate ways for permittees to obtain a summer jai alai permit," and "the Division's conflation of these two distinct permit opportunities improperly imposed unrelated timing requirements on the 'new permit' language, Judge Harvey Jay wrote in a six-page opinion joined by judges Timothy Osterhaus and Allen Winsor.

The appellate court ordered gambling regulators to reinstate West Flagler's summer jai alai application.

"The decision frees up the opportunity for new permits with the potential for multiple new cardroom locations, provided they conduct the jai alai activity, Lockwood told The News Service of Florida on Tuesday.

Industry experts estimate that Tuesday's decision could open the door for at least a half-dozen more summer jai alai permits in Broward or Miami-Dade counties and could even allow the new permit-holders to add slot machines at some point in the future.

"It's just further chaos that creates more uncertainty," said Marc Dunbar, an attorney with the Jones Walker law firm who specializes in gambling law.

The appellate decision came as lawmakers struggle to reach consensus on a new broad gambling plan in an attempt to strike a new gambling deal, known as a compact, with the Seminole Tribe. It's also the latest in a string of court rulings that could affect how much money the state receives from the tribe. The Florida Supreme Court is poised to decide on a separate case that centers on whether pari-mutuels can add slot machines in counties where voters have approved them, without the express permission of the Legislature.

"Obviously, every single court decision that's happened over the last few months has to be taken into account when we're negotiating the compact in the coming weeks," said House Commerce Chairman Jose Felix Diaz, a Miami Republican who's representing the House in the negotiations on a gambling deal.

Information taken from The News Service of Florida.

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House OKs tablet gambling for those flying out of Arnold Palmer … – Tribune-Review

Posted: at 5:16 pm

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Bratislava passes measure to ban gambling from May – World Casino Directory

Posted: at 5:16 pm

In Slovakia, the city council for the nations capital and largest city, Bratislava, has reportedly passed a measure that will ban gambling from the first day of next month although current license holders are to be permitted to continue operating until their existing authorizations expire.

According to a report from The Slovak Spectator newspaper, the body passed the measure against casinos and other gambling venues such as slot parlors on March 30 following months of debate although the license for the citys Banco Casino inside the Crowne Plaza hotel is not due to expire until 2021, which will be three years after the nearby facility operated by Olympic Entertainment Group in the Eurovea Galleria shopping mall is to be forced to close.

It will not work in such a way that we will wake up tomorrow and all the gambling venues will be closed but we finally have an instrument to begin pushing them away, Bratislava mayor Ivo Nesrovnal reportedly stated following last months vote.

The newspaper reported that the upcoming ban is expected to see the city lose almost $3.2 million a year in tax revenues for a budget that last year amounted to $365.9 million although Nesrovnal declared that this would not present a problem for the capital or its 433,000 residents.

We will replace the drop in revenues, Nesrovnal told the newspaper. This was not a vote about money but about values.

The Slovak Spectator reported that the city council attempted to pass a similar prohibition in February but failed to gain enough votes while the looming ban is due to come under scrutiny after the Slovak Association Of Amusements And Games declared that it was prepared to go to court in order to have the move overturned.

The first vote failed to ban gambling but in todays vote the regulation passed and the mayor chose the result according to his preferences, Slovak Association Of Amusements And Games spokesperson Dominika Lukacova told the newspaper before pointing out that the prohibition would most likely lead to a proliferation of illegal gambling.

For its part, Olympic Entertainment Group, which operates four casinos in Bratislava that last year reported gross gaming revenues of $8.7 million, proclaimed that it intended to join with gambling proponents to help overturn the coming ban. The Tallinn-based operator moreover stated that it runs eight casinos in Slovakia that employ some 324 people and chalked up 2016 takings before tax of just over $17.5 million.

The Bratislava city council has this year adopted two completely contradictory decisions regarding a petition to ban gambling operations, read a statement from Madis Jaager, Chief Executive Officer for Olympic Entertainment Group. The position of the Slovak Association Of Amusements And Games is that the second decision adopted by the city council is null and void because it is not possible to adopt multiple decisions concerning the same petition and, therefore, the first decision not to satisfy the petition has to be considered valid. The Slovak Association Of Amusements And Games is planning to challenge the decision from March 30 in court.

Bratislava passes measure to ban gambling from May was last modified: April 5th, 2017 by Adam Morgan

EstoniaSlovakiaolympic entertainment grouptallinnmadis jaagerbratislavabanco casinoivo nesrovnalslovak association of amusements and gamesdominika lukacova

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Euthanasia: How is it done, and what’s it like putting down something you’ve vowed to care for? – Stuff.co.nz

Posted: at 5:15 pm

STACEY KIRK

Last updated15:45, April 5 2017

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There are strong arguments and emotions on both sides of the euthanasia debate.

It's not uncommon for a distraught a pet owner, standing by Rover as he's put down in a veterinary clinic, to lament "I wish we could have done this to Grandma," MPs investigating euthanasia have been told.

Parliament's Health Select Committee is nearing the end of its inquiry into euthanasia, and its MPs requested for specific evidence to be given on the mechanics of the process by leading veterinarians and an anaesthetist.

While they hadsat through months of public submission hearings on the moral, legal and ethical points around euthanasia, little evidence had been given on the process itselfand what it felt like for the clinician performing it.

David Unwin/Fairfax NZ

MPs were told in committee today, that very few vets would opt to prolong an animals suffering, even though it's the thought of saving animals' lives that drew them to the profession.

Dean of Massey University's Veterinary School Jenny Weston said it was difficult to draw too many parallels between animals and humans, but few vets would prefer to prolong suffering rather than put an animal down.

READ MORE: *Euthanasia may be answer to incurable pain, says pain expert *Susan Austen in court on euthanasia drug charges *Charges laid over importing euthanasia drug *Both sides of the euthanasia debate *Explainer: euthanasiadebate

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Wellington lawyer Lecretia Seales' was denied by the court a right to die at the time of her choosing with help from a her doctor. But her husband Matt Vickers carried on her fight, and with the help of former MP Marion Street, delivered a petition to Parliament, which has resulted in the parliamentary inquiry.

"As a profession, we don't have a compulsory requirement for a debrief as there are in other professions - where you can go and unburden your soul about what might be troubling you.

"I think there would be almost no veterinarians, who when there is a sick animal that's in pain, and there is no treatment available, would have any concerns about it," she said.

Often, while it could be a harrowing procedure for the owners, it was one they were most thankful for.

ROSS GIBLIN/FAIRFAX NZ

Matt Vickers, husband of Lecretia Seales, still hopes Government will put forward a bill to legalise voluntary euthanasia.

"Bizarrely it's one of the most appreciated things by clients - is you get more cakes and boxes of chocolates from grateful clients after doing a good job of euthanasing a much loved animal than you do for repairing a terribly fractured leg," she said.

Questions over whether pets would need to beeuthanasedas frequentlyif quality palliative care existed, were incomparable to a subsidised public health system, she said.

However the process with pets often triggered emotional responses if owners had also watched a loved family member suffer in their last years.

"Certainly, there's a majority of times when youreuthanasingsomebody's pet and the ownerwill comment that 'I wish we could have done this to grandma' and there's certainly a strong view that we are kinder to animals."

Asked about the issue of consent, Weston explained to MPs fundamental differences between animals and humans, and their relationships, made it difficult to draw comparisons.

"I always look at animals I've viewed as property, even when they are companion animals and are very much like a child for a lot of people.

"So it is very different for the medical profession, I would imagine, they would only be asked to assist somebody to die by that person," she said.

The animal belonged to a person,and if thatowner consented that they want it to be put to sleep then the vet would do that.

"And as a person, if you can't own your own body and say what you wish to happen, then I would not want to consider at all that a person is the property of another person who would," Weston said.

HOW IT WORKS

In the way the euthanasia process was carried out, it was typically very peaceful and not dissimilar between animals and humans.

"It's a huge overdose of an anaesthetic, so generally the drug enters the bloodstream and the animal just stops breathing, the pupils dilate and the heart stops beating," said Weston, in the case of animals.

"It works on the brain to shut down the activity on the body. So the heart will keep on beating for a minute or two and the pupils dilate instantly, which is a sign of brain function.

"So as long as you've correctly found the vein then it's usually very peaceful. Sometimes if, in particularly old and very-close-to-death animals, the circulation is compromised and it doesn't act as quickly."

But in those cases, the animal would have totally lost consciousness even though there might be apparentgasping and the expansion of the chest in the moments before they died.

New Zealand Society of Anaesthetists President Dr David Kibblewhite outlined a similar intravenousmethod for the committee, by which barbiturates were administered in humans. They could also be delivered orally, which was more common.

He was only able to speak on the processes he was aware of overseas, because while death could sometimes be an outcome of increased pain medication in a terminal patient's final days,no doctor in New Zealand had actually carried out the euthanasia procedure.

But it was not complicated, and in fact occurred on an almost daily basis as part of open heart surgery.

In that instance a person would be given a sedative and a muscle relaxant, and would then be delivered the barbiturate that would "arrest" or stop the heart.

A heart cannot be beating, or drawing oxygen, while a surgeon is operating on it. It's restarted once the procedure is complete.

In a euthanasia procedure it wouldn't be restarted.

"It's not all that complicated really."

-Stuff

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Euthanasia: How is it done, and what's it like putting down something you've vowed to care for? - Stuff.co.nz

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GRAPHIC IMAGES: Pinetown community calls for euthanasia of killer pit bulls – Highway Mail

Posted: at 5:15 pm

THE Pinetown community is calling for two pit bulls that savagely attacked and killed two Jack Russells last week to be euthanised.

Jethro McNamee said his three Jack Russells, Jack, Jill and their baby, AB, lived at his girlfriends home in Balfour Road in Pinetown for the last year. He dropped them off every morning before going to work. His girlfriend, Natasha Clerk, also has a Jack Russell named Duke.

Jill, Jack and AB as a family.

However, on Friday, 31 March their world was shattered when two ferocious pit bulls forced their way into the fenced-off property and front gate at his girlfriends home and attacked two of the four Jack Russells.

The attack set off the security alarm and Blue Security arrived at the house and informed the owners about a dog attack in progress. The reaction officers fired three shots into the air to get the pit bulls off the premises. The police and community watch members were also alerted.

When McNamee arrived at the property, he found his male dog, Jack, unable to move due to the massive wounds on his neck. The female dog, Jill, was found dead a short distance away from Jack.

Jills stomach was ripped open and her intestines were hanging out. There was also a huge chunk of her neck that had been bitten off. The other two dogs, Duke and AB were missing at the time.

Jill was was fatally killed when the pitbulls attacked her. Her stomach was ripped open and her intestines hanging out. She also had a chunk of her neck bitten into.

McNamee said he called for the third dog, AB, and he came running out from the bushes on the other side of the property where he had been hiding. Duke reportedly ran out the gate when Blue Security arrived.

I tried to give Jack some water but he wouldnt drink. A community member, Russel Mallory, helped me by driving Jack and I to the Kloof and Highway SPCA for emergency treatment for Jack but staff said his wounds were too extensive for them to treat so instead they stabilised him and we took him to Everton Veterinary Clinic, said McNamee.

He left Jack in their care and went to look for Duke, but three hours later received a call to say Jack had gone into a coma and stopped breathing.

Jack has massive wounds to his neck. He went into a coma and stopped breathing. Dr Evans at the Everton Vet said he had died due to haemorrhaging.

McNamee went to fetch Jacks body and the veterinarian, Dr Evans, told him the damage to Jacks spine would have left him paralysed and Jack died due to the haemorrhaging.

I took Jack home and my father and I buried Jack and Jill together. They died protecting AB and Duke, who were the younger pets, said McNamee.

The pitbulls were removed from the owner, Abel Khumalos property and taken to the Kloof and Highway SPCA. Khumalo was away in Pretoria at the time.

The community has called for the dogs to be euthanised as this is not the first time the dogs escaped from their yard. Some community members said they were petrified to walk past the property due to the violent nature of the dogs and the gate left open at times. Theres also a Rottweiler on the premises.

Kumalo shares a fence with Pinetown Boys High School. The school gate is next to his gate where the dogs ran out. Jethro said he spoke to the owner on Sunday who is determined to get his dogs back.

However, inspectors at the Kloof and Highway SPCA told Jethro that they will investigate the premises but can not force Khumalo to relocate his dogs if the yard is safe for the animals. They also said they can not force the owner to euthanise the dogs. However, the inspectors did say they were concerned about the community attacking the dogs.

Community members threatened to shoot the dogs if they see it in the community again.

Personally, I dont want to see those dogs again either because I still have two dogs on my girlfriends property. Those pitbulls have tasted blood now and I have no guarantee that they wont attack again, said Jethro.

Jethro filed a charge for keeping a ferocious animal against Khumalo at the Pinetown SAPS on the same day as per advice given to him by a Metro Police officer, Sean Jooste.

My dogs were my family. They were on the property for a year and this is the first time weve had any dog enter the property, said Jethro.

SPCA responds Barbara Patrick, manager of the Kloof and Highway SPCA, confirmed that the pitbull dogs are currently at the Kloof and Highway SPCA and they have not been contacted by the owners as yet with regards to taking their dogs home.

However, Barbara did speak to the owner, his two children and a member of the community and gave them advice on Friday.

Each and every case is dealt with and there is no specific protocol used for dog attacks, said Patrick.

Khumalo was not available for comment at the time of going to press.

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GRAPHIC IMAGES: Pinetown community calls for euthanasia of killer pit bulls - Highway Mail

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