Veterinarians

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

That's when I would have let her taste the same medicine .

As would I.

[PepperElf]

i know it's not always an easy decision to put an animal down - my family's had to do it for a few cats because they were too sick.

however, if an animal is healthy it gets cared for.

in fact... mom went against her sister's wishes. i don't think it was in the will but my aunt wanted the dog put to sleep upon her own death - kinda the same thing i think... "if i'm not alive to enjoy my dog, no one else can"

i believe, after her death the vet kinda took over the dog as his own, and was afraid mom would demand the dog back in order to put it to sleep. instead ... mom paid him a visit to drop off the dog's sweaters, food bowls, etc. so as far as i know the doggy is still alive and crazy as ever (seriously it was a poodle on speed).


i also remember seeing a vet on TV - one of those emergency vet shows - where the situation was similar to the one in the original story... except that the family agreed to let the vet take over the dog. He fixed her up pretty good too. She had to lose the leg but ... that didn't slow her down much.

Oh yeah and he named her Lucky.


as for healthy animals however... where i live, no vet will put down a healthy animal.
when mom & dad moved out they had a hard time finding a home for dad's cat - especially since the cat loved to hunt. they did ask the vet about putting the cat down, not because they wanted to, but because they were having such a hard time finding somewhere for the cat. (and dropping him off on the side of the road... not an option either).

eventually they found a place that took him in... it was an "inside only" place but he'd be alive.


one of my friends almost freaked out when i was trying to figure out what to do with Viggo when I went on deployment. When I said I may "bring him to the vets" i think she thought I meant putting him to sleep... and she offered to take him for me.

however in my case "brining him to the vets" meant paying a hell of a lot to have him cared for (cat boarding, for like 300+ a month) until I got back. sending him to her wasn't an option tho cos... i know her. I'm 85% sure she would have declawed him against my wishes. instead... veeg went to sis's (and is still there, along with his cute claws).

[EvilEmpryss]

I think that some elderly people feel that the pets love them so much that the pets would suffer and not be able to live without them. In their minds, the animals are better off being put to sleep rather than a) suffering the emotional loss and b) being at risk of being abused or neglected by caregivers unknown after the owners' deaths.

Remember, some people feel strongly about allowing their pets to be taken to animal shelters (believing they'll be inhumanely euthanized) or don't trust their heirs or even perfect strangers to be responsible enough to care for their pets as much as they did. It may be just a twisted indication of how much they love their pets, not an indication of how cruel or jealous they are. Only talking to the elderly well before the time comes can put them at ease and convince them to choose life instead of euthanasia.

[blas]

No, my Grandma is just stubborn as a mule. We'd taken Fanta before for a few months, and she missed him so much and wanted him back, so naturally we didn't mind taking him again, but she insisted he had to be put down.

[EvilEmpryss]

No, my Grandma is just stubborn as a mule. We'd taken Fanta before for a few months, and she missed him so much and wanted him back, so naturally we didn't mind taking him again, but she insisted he had to be put down.

Then I am so sorry that that is the way it is.

[PepperElf]

I think that some elderly people feel that the pets love them so much that the pets would suffer and not be able to live without them.

i think that's what my aunt was thinking too.
but Poodle-on-Speed was very happy with her new human.

[mattm04]

If i were the vet in the OP's story I would find a way to make sure the whole office, customers and all know what the "owner" wanted to do.

Vet *in waiting room, loudly* Ok, so sign her to say you want me to put down your dog with the broken leg here becasue of the cost, then here sayign you are rfusing free treatmet for said dog to fix leg."
bitch: *signs*
Vet: NOW GET THE F**K OUT OF MY DAMN OFFICE YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF GARBAGE AND NEVER COME BACK YOU JERK!

Some people shouldn't own animals.

[draggar]

Edited to add - Breeding, non-breeding and 'Care' contracts are standard operating practice for any decent breeder over here.

You should read the contracts my wife makes people sign before adopting a dog from us.

We'll take it back at any time for any reason. (.. and they're also welcome back for boarding if needed),

Spay / neuter in the pet contract.

If the dog goes to anyone else (to own) we need to know about it and go though the application process with the new potential owners - and have the right to refuse them.

The dogs cannot be "outdoor" dogs (meaning they spend all day outdoors).

We are the secondary contact with microchips.

Breeding - needs to be fully tested and certified, the dog they're breeding to needs to be tested for DM (and all their other certs, too).

I'm sure there's a lot more to the contract. (I've never read it).

My wife also does free training for any of our puppies (I'm sure this'll stop or she'll add limitations once some people insist on lifetime free training - but she's too soft).

The story in the OP is sad, and yes it has happened (there was a similar story in a local newspaper a few years ago). If something ever happened to one of our dogs and we couldn't afford to heal them, we would have to put them down but if the vet offered to take the animal off our hands for one of their employees and heal the animal at their cost, we would do it in a heartbeat.

[Magpie]

my aunt wanted the dog put to sleep upon her own death - kinda the same thing i think... "if i'm not alive to enjoy my dog, no one else can"
...
(seriously it was a poodle on speed).

I know that EvilEmpryss' theory makes sense (although I believe you when you shot that down), however I think that you might have the answer in your own post. I edited it for my theory: your aunt figured that no one else would be willing to take care of a crazy dog. Poodles are bad enough. A crazy poodle?

[morgana]

or don't trust their heirs or even perfect strangers to be responsible enough to care for their pets as much as they did. It may be just a twisted indication of how much they love their pets, not an indication of how cruel or jealous they are. Only talking to the elderly well before the time comes can put them at ease and convince them to choose life instead of euthanasia.

We didn't give my mother the option. When she had to move to the Home, we simply packed up Kitty with the rest of the stuff that was moving that day, and Kitty went to my house.

I've had to have several animals put down; old age, illness, whatever. I cried each time, even knowing there was no other choice. In the OP situation, I'd have found the money somehow to get the dog healthy. Or taken the vet's offer if I had no way to get the money. But put down an otherwise healthy animal? No. Just no.

The highest vet bill I've ever paid was over six thousand dollars, but my fur kids get the best I can do for them.

[blas]

Evil, I didn't mean any disrespect in my response to you, thinking about it harder, I'm sure in most cases, that's how it goes and that makes perfect sense.

However, my Grandma has always been stubborn. She was even caught a few years ago paying off a local neighbor boy to tell my uncle he mowed the lawn for her, even though she just gave him the money and did it herself!!!!!!

[EvilEmpryss]

I didn't think you were trying to disrespect me, Blas, so no worries.

But for people who are criticizing those who would put a dog down because of a broken leg, please be careful what you say if you've never been in that position. My service dog "only" had a broken leg, but it was going to cost upwards of $5000 to fix it. We just didn't have that kind of money, and there was no way we could get our hands on even half of it. You can say that you would "do anything" to come up with the money, but have you really considered what "anything" entails? Or how much "anything" would actually bring in?

Ignoring the fact that the vets wanted payment in full up front, with my disability payments if I even *tried* to go to work to get the money, I'd have lost all my disability income (that means no mortgage money, no car payments, no food money). Hubby is starting his doctoral internship and his dissertation, so there's just no room for him to get a job. Our credit scores are crap and our credit cards wouldn't have been able to absorb the costs. We don't have enough worth selling to make up the fees except the car, which we can't afford to be without.

It didn't help that the way the vet put it was: "Her leg is shattered into three pieces. It will cost $4,000-$5,000 to surgically repair it. How long would you like to have with her before we put her down?" No offer to take payments, no offer to perform the surgery gratis, no offer to take the dog on as a vet pet if we signed her over, shit, not even a discussion of the possibility of amputation (which would have cost a hell of a lot less than the repair). The vet just wanted to know when we wanted to schedule the euthanasia. I had actually started praying that the vet would find some terribly traumatic internal injuries just so I would have some "justification" if I had to put her to sleep.

So please be considerate of the choices other people may be forced to make due to life circumstance.

If not for the compassion of my MIL and the vets and staff at Thomasville Animal Hospital, Goldie wouldn't be walking around the room right now, exercising her healing leg and begging for tablescraps from Hubby.

[Eisa]

You know...with the ex-roomie situation...I'm glad that you didn't do physical harm to her, as she probably would have gotten you arrested [and then hopefully you could have gotten the bitch arrested for animal abuse ] but holy fuck would I have had a hard time not doing the same thing to someone who would hurt an animal like that.

We had to put our German Shepherd down. He was about 12 years old. It happened April 24, 2008. I went to school and didn't even know about it, but he went outside and then was just...unable to move his back legs. It took them hours to get him to move into the house. He was paralyzed. They managed to get him to the vet and the vet told them that they didn't know what was wrong. They could try to treat him, but there was no guarantee the same thing wouldn't happen again. So that the best option would have been to put him down.

The problem is, my sister and I didn't get the chance to say goodbye at all. I got a call at school that he had collapsed and that my parents were taking him to the vet, and that I needed to hurry home so I could let my sister in [as she didn't have a house key]. When I got there, she was freaking out, and I only managed to open the door and then we just collapsed on the floor, crying our eyes out. It was even worse when they came home and we found out that they'd just had him put down right then!

Wow, it's been over 2 years and it still has the power to put me completely in tears...

[zombiequeen]

That's like whoever hit our dog, they didn't even stop or do anything, we found him in the ditch a week later, covered in snow.
I could have understood if he looked like a deer, but he was a dark chocolate lab, and friendly as anything.
I was so pissed, anytime I heard about someone hitting an animal on my road (dirt part of a recently major road) I would start talking to find out what they had hit.

One guy said he hit a bear in his semi truck...jake was big and hunched up like a bear if he was running sometimes...He then climbed into his truck with his beautiful purebred baby chocolate lab...I wanted to take his dog and yell at him for killing mine...but of course, who knows what he had hit (certainly wasn't a bear, there aren't any around here)

I don't even like dogs, but I was so mad, my dad (Jake was his dog) cried for weeks.

[Mikkel]

In the end my ex-roomie got kicked by karmic retribution...much better than me doing anything to her

Good, that's what I like to hear .
Splat survived and live happily ever after and the villain live what hopefully is a fate worse than death to her. I do love happy endings .