cptbrandyteache:
drferox:
Anonymous said: how do you deal with having to euthanize an animal that you can
tell is trying very hard to stay alive and be happy and well? like you
know it’s the best decision for them but… it makes me feel so guilty,
when they look at me and their eyes are still full of fire, but there’s
no way to help them. so how do you deal with that feeling?
There’s not enough information here, Anon.
If they’re happy and well, why is the procedure happening? Is it a shelter animal? Then the situation sucks but you have to consider the quality of their likely life if their adoption chance is nil.
Is it that they’re ‘trying’ but they’re not actually happy or well? Then we don’t have to wait for them to get worse if their prognosis is hopeless. We can understand their future and prevent them from experiencing the inevitable ‘rock bottom’.
If the situation is vague enough to be causing me moral distress then I just don’t do it. Someone else can do it if they can justify it, but I intend to sleep at night,
Ex shelter worker current vet assistant here. We euthanized a LOT of animals at the shelter I worked at. Some of them were easy no brainers, health related issues and such. But way more often than I liked, they had to be euthanized for space. With no spay and neuter laws, and people below the USA bible belt who didn’t believe in spay and neuter, I’ve had to look into the eyes of many many happy, healthy *good* dogs and cats as they died. And you know how I handled it? I loved them. They had no one. They were lost and abandoned. But in that moment, that very very sad but important moment they had me. I cuddled them, I kissed them and as they lost consciousness, I wispered to them that they were so so good. I did that with likely hundreds. I lost count.
And I became more aggressive with my spay and neuter preaching. It hurt. It still hurts. But if we hadn’t euthanized them humanely, they would have lived life in a cage and that’s not a life worth living. If we hadn’t taken them in, they would have been dumped or shot or hit by a car.
So when you’re in that moment, love them. Kiss them. Cuddle them. And try harder for the next one.
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