Pratik AgrawalRussian scientists and veterinarians are demanding a nationwide ban on curare-like muscle relaxants used to euthanize animals. These substances cause animals to remain fully conscious paralyzed and suffocating for up to five minutes before death.
Russia’s Vets and Scientists Call Animal Euthanasia With Curare Drugs “Hell on Earth”
Russia’s leading veterinarians and scientists are pushing hard for a ban on curare-like drugs used to euthanize animals. These substances widely used across the country force animals into a horrifying, conscious death that experts now describe as unacceptable.
“These drugs cause an agonizing death. The animal stays conscious and suffocates for five minutes. This is hell. Euthanasia using curare poison must be banned we simply cannot continue this way,” said Sergei Sereda, President of the Russian Association of Practising Veterinarians and an honored veterinary doctor of Russia. He made these remarks at a round table titled “Animals in the World of People: Help and Protection,” held at the Russia Today media group.
What Are Curare-Like Drugs And Why Are They Still Used?
Curare-like drugs, also called muscle relaxants, are currently used to euthanize livestock and often household pets as well. These substances block the transmission of nerve impulses to the muscles causing full-body paralysis. Their mechanism mirrors that of curare poison, the same toxin South American indigenous tribes used to coat their arrows.
Sereda stressed that banning these substances is a matter of national importance far beyond a simple veterinary policy question.
“This directly shapes what kind of generations we raise their moral character, their compassion for all living things. The problem extends beyond pets it also involves farm animals, which feed our entire population. Every living being deserves a dignified death. Euthanasia must be humane, and those rules of humanity need to be clearly written into law,” he emphasized.
Brain Science Confirms the Suffering Is Real
Igor Bondar a senior researcher at the Laboratory of Sensory Systems Physiology, Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences explained how modern neuroscience makes the cruelty undeniable.
“Animals have an innate drive toward freedom when they sense restriction, they immediately try to escape. If an animal finds itself in a hopeless situation, the brain erupts with activity everything is directed at eliminating the threat. Emotion also plays a key role it keeps the animal attuned to the outside world, including pain. Pain pushes the animal into a self-preservation mode, while motor instincts drive it to act against danger,” Bondar explained.
He then described what happens when curare-like drugs take hold the link between the sensory organs and the ability to move is brutally severed. “What emerges is a state of extreme stress the animal’s connection to its own body is completely shut off. It is simply impossible to measure the scale of harm caused by inhumane euthanasia,” he added.
A New Humane Drug: Three Years in the Making
Alexei Ermakov Director of the Institute of Living Systems at Don State Technical University (DSTU) and head of the strategic project “One Health” noted that animal euthanasia has moved far beyond a veterinary issue.
“It now touches three domains veterinary medicine, law, and humanism. There are serious gaps in all three. But to solve this problem, we must not only point out that current methods are cruel and inadequate we must also offer something better,” he said.
Ermakov revealed that scientists at DSTU spent three years developing a new humane euthanasia drug. It first shuts down brain activity completely and only then ends the animal’s life.
“The drug is formulated without any narcotic substances yet it uses only components available in Russia. The drug has been created. It works. It has been patented. All competent authorities have reviewed it,” the scientist stated.
The newly developed drug is currently designed for intravenous use. However, Ermakov pointed out that the agricultural sector especially during mass outbreaks of dangerous animal diseases requires faster and repeated injections. DSTU scientists have now moved on to developing an intramuscular version of the same compound.
The BRICS Times
Akshay Didwaniya
