Euthanasia in Animals

[interspark]

Alright, I've got alot to say here and no paticular order to say it in, I'll start with my initial beliefs,

BELIEFS
I think that taking life if horrific and completely unjustified in any circumstance (seriously, I don't even kill bugs), I think humans in general should get off their high-horse and accept the fact that they are an animal just like any other and should treat them equally. In relation to the topic, animals shouldn't be put down at the first sign of dought, unlike humans (sorry, who aren't. I didn't mean to imply that human's SHOULD be... oh you know what I mean) *rant over*

CURRENT CIRCUMSTANCES

We have a chicken who is very sick, she can hardly stand upright and seems unable to dry off her left wing, hence, she can only lie on her side when it rains, often in the mud. We've currently got her in a pet carrier in the porch, where she'll be warm and we can easily feed her. The vet's most likely possibility is that it's a neurological problem, which would be expensive to even diagnose, so if it comes to that I think my mum will simply have her put down.


OVERALL VIEWS
I think at this point we must ask ourselves, "what is life?", I think to a human, life is working, watching TV, playing video games, going down the pub (etc), most of these things can be done in modern day society under almost any level of disability. But to a chicken, life is about foraging, eating, enjoying the sunshine, haveing dust baths, none of which Penny (our chicken) can currently do. So perhaps we should assume that Penny's life is already over and that the inhumanity would be in keeping her alive any longer.

Conclusion? I think Penny looks OK for now, she's still well groomed and, at a glance, appears to be the picture of health, so if I have to, I'd be glad to continue to care for her until she gets better. However, if this is it for Penny, and she is to spend the rest of her life in a cage haveing food placed under her beak, perhaps life really is over for her?

So that's it, what are the Escapee's opinions on the matter?

 

[zipper2150]

In no way do i mean to offend as i can see that you care about this pet of yours, but from what you have said i have to agree in Pennies current condition life for her(i assume) is probably already over, it's a sad thing losing a pet, but you have to remember that death is a natural course of events, and that if you weren't taking care of her she would probably already be dead in the wild. I'm no vet and can't tell you if she is in pain or not, but it seems to me that she certainly isn't enjoying life, and it is time to let her go in the quickest least painful way possible.

 

[Lullabye]

I'm okay with killing animals. Not for sport/fun, but for needs.
I'm also okay with killing other people if I think they deserve it. Or out of necessity.
I'm pretty sure they're okay with killing me too.

 

[Underground Man]

I had a cat with feline leukemia. We did as much as we could to save her, but in the end she was terminal. She was uncomfortable, eating and drinking only when we force-fed her through a feeding tube, and absolutely terminal. So we put her down.

That was the worst moment of my life. It happened in 2007, and I still cry when I think about it. But I would rather that I suffer than her suffer, and if I were in the same situation, I would want to be put down too.

Everyone dies. Might as well go peacefully if the only alternative is a painful exit.

 

[Juggern4ut20]

I would like to say that the idea that "humans in general should get off their high-horse and accept the fact that they are an animal just like any other and should treat them equally" is ridiculous.

A. we are NOT an animal just like any other, there is a wide range of things that make humans much different than just any other animals.

B. The very idea of treating animals equally is completely unnatural and created by what makes us different. The fact that you would care about not killing bugs is drastically different than how animals would act. A little while ago my cat found a field mouse in the backyard and proceed to stalk it and beat its life away. He wasn't bothered enough to eat it or even really wanted to, he was just bored. Once the mouse was broken and could no longer run my cat just walked off.

As for your chicken, Penny, if you want to invest the money and time to keep it alive, then do it. All life fights to stay alive and deep down this chicken just like any other organism is fighting to stay alive. So if it were up to the chicken, then it wouldn't want you to end its life. However, its a chicken. It's brain is smaller than the size of my finger nail on my pinky. If you are going to keep it alive, I suspect it has more to do with your emotional attachments to this chicken than the actual chicken itself. Because i do not have those emotional attachments, i'd say let it die or put it down.

 

[Johnnyallstar]

My rottweiler was diagnosed with a blood disease and lost 30lbs in less than 2 weeks. We tried everything we could to keep her alive for about 6 weeks, but in the end I had to put her down, because she was becoming skin and bones. It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do.

Human life is different, though. While we are animal, we are not mere animals. Where there is human life, there is hope, and where there is hope, there can be greatness.

Just consider the book "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," written by Jean-Dominique Bauby. Bauby, a frenchman, had suffered a massive stroke, and had been "locked-in" to his body, only able to blink his left eyelid. "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" was written by Bauby by blinking with a partner reciting the alphabet for 4 hours a day, for 10 months. Telling about his life, and how his life was after the stroke. He died of pneumonia 2 days after publication, but the world would be less without the amazing feat this book was.

Humans aren't normal animals, and as such, certain differences apply.

 

[CarpathianMuffin]

If the animal's suffering, then I see no problem with it.

My old cat Roger, for instance. He had a severe heart defect that had him in excruciating pain, coughing up a lung almost all the time. After a year and many failed meds, we decided to give him some rest, the poor guy.

 

[interspark]

I would like to say that the idea that "humans in general should get off their high-horse and accept the fact that they are an animal just like any other and should treat them equally" is ridiculous.

A. we are NOT an animal just like any other, there is a wide range of things that make humans much different than just any other animals.

B. The very idea of treating animals equally is completely unnatural and created by what makes us different. The fact that you would care about not killing bugs is drastically different than how animals would act. A little while ago my cat found a field mouse in the backyard and proceed to stalk it and beat its life away. He wasn't bothered enough to eat it or even really wanted to, he was just bored. Once the mouse was broken and could no longer run my cat just walked off.

As for your chicken, Penny, if you want to invest the money and time to keep it alive, then do it. All life fights to stay alive and deep down this chicken just like any other organism is fighting to stay alive. So if it were up to the chicken, then it wouldn't want you to end its life. However, its a chicken. It's brain is smaller than the size of my finger nail on my pinky. If you are going to keep it alive, I suspect it has more to do with your emotional attachments to this chicken than the actual chicken itself. Because i do not have those emotional attachments, i'd say let it die or put it down.

clearly we are operating on two VERY different wavelengths so i wont bother argueing with you, however, your claim on the size of a chickens brain is ludecrous, an animal with a brain of that relative size would be able to eat and mate exclusively. anyone who owns chickens can tell they have extreemely intricate lives, each one with likes, dislikes, tastes and attitude in general. they are certainly NOT dumb animals

 

[Forgetitnow344]

I had a pit bull/corgi mix who was always extremely aggressive. Are pit bulls biologically predisposed to being more dangerous? No, but this one was and it worked against her. She would fight about once a year with our other corgi mix and this year it was bad. She tore off half of his ear. We looked into every possible alternative, but when you live in southern California and you have a dog who is obviously of pit bull blood and she is extremely aggressive, there aren't many options. She had to go for the safety of our other dog, and she had no where else to go. We had exactly two options: take her to a no-kill shelter (private shelters would not take her) and she is deemed unfit for adoption and then lives the rest of her life in a cell. OR euthanasia. If you aren't a self-righteous fifteen-year-old you will know that this was the only option. It was far more humane than letting her live for ten years in a cell and die alone. She got to die in my arms looking into my eyes, tail wagging until it was physically incapable of doing so. She never even knew what was coming until she was gone.