Veterinary standards ... only for dogs?

"Current practice for lethal injection for execution fails to meet veterinary standards" --Dr Leonardis Koniaris, University of Miami

According to a BBC Story...

Prisoners are 'aware' during executions

Prisoners are alone in the death chamber when they die

Prisoners executed by lethal injection in the US may have been aware of what was happening to them, researchers claim.

A team from the University of Miami looked at information on anaesthesia and awareness in prisoners.

They suggest some suffer unnecessarily, and claim standards do not meet those for putting animals down.

The researchers, writing in the Lancet, call for the use of lethal injection to cease to prevent "unnecessary cruelty".