It’s one of the hardest decisions you’ll ever have to make. So how do you know when the time is right?
In the 1960s, I knew people who, before going on vacation, would take their dogs to a shelter to be euthanised. They reasoned that it was cheaper to have a dog euthanised – and buy a new one upon returning – than pay a kennel fee.
Two decades later, I was working at a veterinary hospital when a group of distraught bikers on Harley-Davidsons pulled up carrying a sick chihuahua. The dog was intractably ill, and required euthanasia to prevent further suffering. Afterwards, the hospital’s counselors felt compelled to find the bikers a motel room: their level of grief was so profound that the staff didn’t think it was safe for them to be riding their motorcycles.
These two stories illustrate the drastic change in how animals have been perceived. For thousands of years, humans have kept animals as pets. But only during the past 40 years have they come to be viewed as family.
While it’s certainly a positive development that animals are being treated humanely, one of the downsides to better treatment mirrors some of the problems the (human) health care system faces with end-of-life care.
As with humans, in many cases the lives of pets are needlessly prolonged, which can cause undue suffering for the animals and an increased financial burden for families.
The growth of veterinary medicine and ethics.
In 1979, I began teaching veterinary medical ethics at Colorado State University’s veterinary school, the first such course ever taught anywhere in the world.
A year later, the veterinary school hired an oncologist to head up a new program on animal oncology. Soon, our clinic was applying human therapeutic modalities to animal cancer. The visionary head of the veterinary program also hired a number of counselors to help pet owners manage their grief – another first in veterinary circles.
Top Comments
When you love your pet you just know when it's time. Somehow.
I am going through this right now. My 18 year old tuxedo cat Marcel has synovial sarcoma in his back left leg and rather than go through major surgery to amputate the leg my vet and I decided to just manage his pain and let nature take its course. He is still eating, although has lost weight over the last 2 months since he was diagnosed, still walking, jumping up on the bed and getting around with only minor limping but he is getting VERY needy, vocal (meowing) demonstrations are increasing and sleeps way more than he used too. I know the time is near when the decision to put him to sleep will be the best choice because I don't want him to suffer. It may even be this week. I know that if I had not rescued him 11years ago, he would not have had an idyllic cat life that was happy, love filled and carefree. So, as hard as it will be for me, I will say good-bye to him knowing I did a good thing the day I adopted him and loved him with all I had.