Poll: Everyone's favorite game, Euthanasia!

[pixiejedi]

I was gazing into the fridge today and I noticed the picture of my dog sticking on the fridge door. Her name was Molly and she was a Beagle mix. She was tall for the bread, and we affectionately called her Eeyore because she always had a sad hound dog look to her. I knew though that she loved the hell out of me. She was only happy if I was around, she would follow me around and steal any piece of food not nailed down to the table. I Had her since I was around 12, so about 13 years. Last October My husband and I put her to sleep. She had a recurring bladder infection and was in liver and kidney failure. We knew the time was coming. She couldn't make it up the stairs to our apartment and she seemed to have lost all the joy she had. She wouldn't follow me around the house, she couldn't jump up on the bed (which is on the ground) to sleep with me, and she began to ignore our other dog when he would pester her to play.

This was about six months ago. I took it really hard. I've had other pets but I never had to make that decision and I had never been in the room to see it all go down. It was honestly one of the worst nights of my life. I'm still not really over it. We got a kitten, named him Commander Shepard (all me of course) and he is really awesome. I love him a lot but sometimes I feel guilty, as if I'm replacing Molly. I also know how things with Commander Shepard are really inevitably going to end, so I feel a bit as if I'm holding back trying to save myself the pain.

I don't regret my actions, she was in pain. Its just weird that when I watched the Nostalgia critic a couple of weeks ago and in the middle of the review he shows the end of Marley and Me, I just broke down and cried. I know the scene is manipulative and that is the point of it, but I thought I wouldn't be this way. Especially not this long afterwards.

So after this beautiful wall of text, I want to know: How do you personally feel about euthanasia? Have you ever had to put a pet down? How long did it take for you to get a new pet if you did? And probably most importantly for me personally, do you feel like you ever got over it? If so how long did it take to get there?

Edit: Stupid poll, the last poll option is supposed to say "Wait, euthanasia isn't just a game?"

 

[Don Savik]

I can't fathom why anyone would think that letting something die slowly in agony is better than a quick death.

I guess the same people that think that killing one mass murderer turns you into a mass murderer.

 

[Vault101]

pets? definetly

unlike people its sad because they dont understand whats going on...at least with people some can cope

 

[Frankster]

I've had to put down my lovely orange persian kitty (basically a mini lion) as he got cat AIDS via a scratch of an infected cat during his nights out...

It was horrible, the cat gradually stopped eating or doing anything, and though we didn't want to put him down it was clear we would had to as poor kitten was really suffering.
Looked into his eyes as it went from life to death, it chilled me to my bones.

It's neccesary and has to be done sometimes alas, when a pet/person is in too much pain, keeping them alive is the worst of tortures. And its perfectly legit to feel extremely guilty about doing the action, as I did, shows we ain't heartless monsters.

 

[manic_depressive13]

I've never had to euthanise any of my pets. Wish I had because at least that would have meant they'd managed to reach an age where they were able to catch a debilitating illness. I've had:
- Five birds. One most likely starved to death. My father killed one. The next one got some freaky cancerous growths but my parents refused to take it to the vet. The other two just dropped dead at some point. I was too young and stupid to do anything about any of this because we went through all the birds before I was seven.
- One mouse, died after about a year.
- Two rabbits which probably died of sunstroke.
- A dog which got hit by a car.

We have a dog at the moment which by some miracle is still alive. If we had to euthanise her I'd be quite sad but I wouldn't be devastated. Everything has to die sometime.

 

[Rastien]

Not quite the same, going to work early in the morning go down into the living room. Holy shit... it was like a scene from itchi the killer >_>

Me ma's dog had a haemorage during the night and had been walking around coughing and sneezing blood on pretty much everything and in the corner of the room was dead in a pool of his blood.

This is like 05:30 in the morning i decide it's probably best my mum doesn't come down to see him like this so i begin to cleaning this mess up.

Finally get around to tending to the dog luckily he was black labradoor so the blood didn't show on his fur, cleaned him up as best i could, got a flannel to clean his face and paws. Then dried him off with a towel, picked the lump up and got him to his bed.

Went upstairs and told me ma the dog had died in his sleep, to this day she doesn't know the horrendus scene in the living room x) i told my old man but not me ma.

Would have been nice if it wasn't so sudden and violent that we could have put him down, oh well ^^.

Wasn't anything like bad as this scene from dexter but you get the picture (bloody room):

Spoiler

 

[Padwolf]

For my pets, yes, definitely. Forgive me for I am about to go into a very sad memory and sad situation with a vet that wasn't doing their job properly.

Last year (technically two, it started in december 2010) my cat Snowy was having problems. We knew she was seriously ill. We took her to the vets and had blood tests done, and it only came up that she had a cold. We knew she didn't. We knew there was more to it, but the vets said nothing more can be done.

A month later I get woken up by my dog scratching at my door and crying a bit. I got up, he insisted I go down the stairs with him, and when we get down I see Snowy laying on the floor unable to move. I knew what was coming after that. Me and my brother got her into a cat carrier, took her to the vets where they told us that she had a huge tumor in her belly and nothing can be done now. Not a small tumor, a pretty damn big one. She had to be put down.

My cat spent her last months of living in pain because of those vets. Because they told us she had a cold. We didn't believe her, but at that time we couldn't do much because of living situations we were going through, we couldn't get another opinion, there was no other vets near us and the use of the car was very limited. But also, we trusted the vets. We trusted them to do their damn job. A tumor should have come up, Snowy had so many tests done. It should have shown up. This was a vet that all our other animals had gone to for about twenty five years. We had no reason not to believe them.

If we had known, we could have done something. We could have gotten it removed. We could have had her put down sooner. I'm all for euthanasia for my pets when nothing can be done to save them. I won't let something like that happen again. My cat spent two months in pain when it could have been resolved sooner. It wasn't right. It still stings me to this day because we could have had her put down sooner. She shouldn't have had to live in pain like that, she could barely eat and drink. It must have been hell for her. And that fecking vet told us it was a cold. I can't ever forgive that vet for it. I can't get the image of Snowy just lying there barely being able to breathe or move or make a noise out of my mind.

We managed to find another veterinary service a few months later. They have been so fantastic that it makes me feel sad we could not find them for Snowy. It takes me quite a while to move on from a pet. Snowy was the third pet I have had that had to be put down. First it was my dog Mojo, then my cat Mr Tibbs, then her. They all hurt of course, and I miss them still, but Snowy's hurt more just because of the situation and that vet. It's been a year and 7 months now, and we just got a little kitten called Smudge. Sometimes I feel guilty because I notice that she is just like Snowy in personality in almost every way. I can't help noticing it. But I know she isn't Snowy.

If my pet is suffering and nothing more can be done, then it is the best option for them. It's not fair to let them suffer that much.

 

[Simskiller]

poll = 104.8%

HOW?

 

[Vamantha]

This reminds me of one of my ex-boyfriends. He didn't believe in wasting money on having your pet put down peacefully. He wanted to be like his Father and shot them in the face. I love how quickly our relationship ended when he told me he would put my cat down like that regardless if I wanted him to or not.

I vote for a quick, painless death thank you.

I'm sorry, but your title. It just had to be done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnWDfc2fS54

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Of the pets we've had to put down, I've been present at all of them, I feel like I owe them that much, to be there in their last moments, even pets I didn't care much for. I think in part, it also helps me get over the loss.

I raised a lizard (a Chinese water dragon) they're very high maintenance creatures. I got him as a baby and he lived a good ten years, one winter, we had unseasonably cold weather and he got sick. I did everything I could to save him and he died overnight. I've had nightmares about him, I feel like I've failed him.

His death hurts me much more than those of any pet I've had to have put to sleep, it's hurts to put a pet down, but it hurts so much worse to wake up and find them dead.