The problem with euthanasia for pets is that most people will use it for their
own convenience. I have seen this happen several times and it's really
terrible but there is no crime in killing an animal. We do this every day to
eat them, for sport, as trophies or just because we don't want them any more.
They don't match the new sofa or they might scratch the new sofa. I have a cat
rescued from the vet clinic when the woman I was sitting next to who had a
lovely white male cat in a carrier told me she was having him euthanized
because he was an outside cat and it was too much trouble to call him in at
night. Another woman brought in her two older cats, lovely Maine Coon mixes,
obviously still full of life to have them "put to sleep" because she and her
husband were going on a world tour. And a third woman was getting married and
her husband to be hated cats so off went her 8 year old Persian mix. Well, not
exactly off. I adopted the white
cat. I still have him. He tested FIV+ because the woman had not bothered to
neuter him as a teen. He's in my little FIV+group, perfectly happy to be
indoors. The world tour people left their cats at the vet clinic and one of
the techs adopted them and the idiot who was marrying a cat hater never knew
that her cat was adopted by one of the secretaries at the vet clinic. But
these success stories happened because I was there and convinced the technician
and the secretary that death was unfair to the cats and they agreed.
Veterinary medicine is still for the benefit of the "owner". Animals are
considered property rather than individuals with the right to having a
caregiver and the right to their own lives. We choose not to see the suffering
of a truly terminally ill companion animal because we don't want to feel the
pain of the loss. We choose not to see how unethical it is to kill millions of
cats and dogs because there are "too many" around or they are positive for some
disease that they do not have at the present time and may never actually come
down with or any number of other reasons we use to murder non-human animals.
Everyone will eventually die. It's a bad plan but we had no say in it.
However, the idea that we have to kill animals because they might die of this
or that is not ethical. The idea that a human is so precious that we keep him
or her alive way past reason is equally illogical and unethical. I don't have
any answers so I try to use logic. I don't euthanize for convenience. I allow
maximum care for my rescued cats, for my FeLv+ cats and my FIV+ cats. I watch
to see if their lives have gone beyond the limit of being useful to them, not
to me and then I accept the pain it will cause me and allow them to pass on. I
don't tell myself fairy tales about where they go. I miss them and I accept
the grief knowing that they are no longer in pain or distress.
Spay and Neuter your cats and dogs and your weird relatives and nasty neighbors
too!
________________________________
From: MaiMaiPG <maima...@gmail.com>
To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2012 8:46 PM
Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Deciding-when-a-pet-has-suffered-enough
With those beliefs, please check into a Do Not Resuscitate Order. LWs are
great but stopping something once it is started is difficult. A DNR can help
keep measures from being started.
On Sep 25, 2012, at 2:51 PM, Lorrie wrote:
> Absolutely Edna..... It is positively cruel to keep people alive
> when they are suffering and there is no recovery in sight. The
> only states that allow doctor assisted suicide are Oregon, Wash.
> and Montana. It can't happen in my state of WV. Dr. Kevorkian was
> my hero. I'll be 80 my next birthday and it terrifies me to think
> of not being able to end my life when I'm ready. I've signed a
> Living Will requesting NO heroic measures, if I'm terminal, but
> sometimes they keep you alive anyway.
>
> Lorrie
>
> alive-25, Edna Taylor wrote:
>> personally, I think we should do this for people too, end their
>> suffering. What quality of life does someone have who simply lays in
>> bed in a vegetative state? Who are we keeping that person alive for?
>> to what end? If it were me, and I had some life ending disease or
>> accident, I would want my husband to use what money we had, go out and
>> get as much booze and coke as he could get and let me go out with a
>> bang ;) But then again, that is just my opinion ;)
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
> http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
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