FRANKFORT - Agriculture Commissioner Billy Ray Smith said Tuesday the shooting of strays in animal shelters should be banned, and he will ask the General Assembly to do so.

        Mr. Smith said he wanted to “bring Kentucky law more in step with the times” following the embarrassment of a national telecast of video of dogs being shot at the animal shelter in Henry County.

        Videotape aired by NBC and several Kentucky stations showed some dogs alive and howling after being shot. Henry County has since halted gunshot euthanasia.

        The Department of Agriculture got many calls from viewers, Doug Thomas, a department spokesman, said. “Everybody's upset about the law itself. But we're just charged with enforcing the law,” Mr. Thomas said Tuesday.

        Mr. Smith said he will ask the 2003 General Assembly to “modernize and clarify” animal control laws that were written 50 years ago.

        The law makes no mention of euthanization method, a point the Kentucky Court of Appeals noted in July when refusing in a Trimble County case to declare the shooting of impounded dogs inhumane.

        The court said it was “the legislature's prerogative” to abolish the practice of shooting strays, and it had declined.

        Mr. Smith said the law should be changed to require a method of euthanization acceptable to the American Veterinary Medical Association, which issued a report on animal euthanasia in 2000.

        The report says, “Gunshot should not be used for routine euthanasia of animals in animal control situations, such as municipal pounds or shelters.”

        The proposed legislation would deal with euthanization of all animals, not just dogs, Mr. Smith and Department of Agriculture general counsel Mark Farrow said.

        Legislation to update Kentucky's dog law, including prohibition of gunshot euthanasia, was introduced earlier this year. The bill was passed by the House but died in a Senate committee. Debate focused almost entirely on its cost, and nothing was said about euthanasia methods, Mr. Smith said.

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