worldmegan

In a household where our dogs have always been fellow human beings, I suppose my take on pet euthanasia ought to be out of the norm. That shouldn’t be surprising. The dogs who have died in my family have all gone naturally, except for the last, who may have accidently ingested too much MSG… something that is closer to natural, now that I’m thinking clearly about it, just because she was a little dog and a garbage digger. Little dog = low tolerance for MSG, garbage digger = perilous life calling. That may not make sense to anyone but me. ;}

In any case, if I were very sick and suffering… my family would do whatever they could to A. cure me or at least B. help me to be in less discomfort. But they wouldn’t kill me to ease my suffering, and they wouldn’t kill me for lack of money to pay the vet with. Ah, the medical expenses, that is.

I understand that animals are different than human beings, but beyond that, I’m pretty sure that animals deal with pain better than human beings. Animals don’t personalize their pain – they just experience it. And if I am in a great deal of pain, from an illness that cannot be cured, in a situation where no one can pay the medical bills and no one will provide me proper medical care… just give me a stack of codeines and snuggle with me until I bite the bullet. Doesn’t that sound more reasonable? Where has this mentality for putting down pets come from? And don’t give me the ‘humane’ argument, either.

While I’m on the ‘humane’ kick, I haven’t decided how I feel about, for instance, an animal who is in massive amounts of immediate agony and will undoubtedly die shortly no matter what is done, in a situation where he cannot be moved and there is no painkilling medication available.

So ultimately, these are just a bunch of thoughts. Perhaps the few people who read this can speculate for me. :}