A great animal irony in the Baze oral argument

Through a C-Span link, I am listening to a rebroadcast of this morning’s Baze oral argument.  During questioining of Kentucky’s lawyer defending its lethal injection protocol, Justice Stevens made much of the fact that Kentucky state law prohibits vets from using a similar protocol for putting down animals.  During the dialogue, an amazing irony hit me:

It seems that, purportedly to achieve a more humane lethal injection protocol, it seems that some are arguing that the Eighth Amendment requires that condemned defendants should be treated more like condemned animals.  (Readers are now encouraged to think of a funny Michael Vick firing squad joke to add here.)