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by ShadyLady on 24 June 2010 - 14:06
Some owners can't handle being with their animals when they are put down. It's hard. Damn hard and I'll cut people slack for that. They've already said their good-byes. People get closure and grieve in different ways. If they don't want to be there, it doesn't mean that they are uncaring. Vet techs and vets are there to help, when someone chooses not to be present.
What Robin wrote about what her clinic does for litters of unwanted kittens sounds like a plan that many shelters and county animal controls should follow.
by VomMarischal on 25 June 2010 - 02:06
I feel really bad about leaving a dog at the vet's to be put down. The dog (a feral black lab) had attacked two of my neighbors; they are still alive, I think, because the man held a huge log in front of them and the dog bit hell out of that. Well, I just couldn't have it. I tried rescues, but they all said why would they place that mean dog when dozens of nice dogs needed homes. I took him to a local schutzhund club which I now know to be run by a freaking idiot; but I didn't at the time, so when she told me he was a liability and I needed to have him put down, I believed her.
When I got to the vet's office I was in such bad shape that I couldn't even breathe. They just took the leash from me and I left, and they sent me a bill later. I loved that dog SO much; there is something about being adopted by a wild thing that is very compelling. Anyway, I would probably have been ready for the Nice Young Men in Their Clean White Coats if I had stayed.
That vet didn't like to put down young healthy dogs either, but when I told him that the dog had attacked someone, he agreed. Not willingly, but because there was no other way--or so we sincerely believed at the time.
I'm still hopelessly in love with that dog and I so hate hearing that I'm heartless for not staying and letting him die in my arms. This thread is making me cry a lot.
When I got to the vet's office I was in such bad shape that I couldn't even breathe. They just took the leash from me and I left, and they sent me a bill later. I loved that dog SO much; there is something about being adopted by a wild thing that is very compelling. Anyway, I would probably have been ready for the Nice Young Men in Their Clean White Coats if I had stayed.
That vet didn't like to put down young healthy dogs either, but when I told him that the dog had attacked someone, he agreed. Not willingly, but because there was no other way--or so we sincerely believed at the time.
I'm still hopelessly in love with that dog and I so hate hearing that I'm heartless for not staying and letting him die in my arms. This thread is making me cry a lot.
by sueincc on 25 June 2010 - 03:06
dogshome9: I'm sorry your day was so rotten, but on the other hand I'm glad you were there to give that dog sweet and loving comfort as he left this world. You sound like an extremely compassionate person, thank you for caring so much.
by hexe on 25 June 2010 - 03:06
"I'm still hopelessly in love with that dog and I so hate hearing that I'm heartless for not staying and letting him die in my arms. This thread is making me cry a lot."
VM, you most certainly aren't heartless--a heartless person certainly wouldn't be shedding any tears over this thread, for one thing. You didn't leave your feral dog friend out on his own after he attacked your neighbors, to be hunted down and snared in a frenzied state of terror; you accepted the responsiblity that someone else abdicated long before this dog encountered you and made sure he had a humane escape from this dimension...even though it tore you up then, and it still causes you distress, to have done so. You weren't heartless or weak or cruel for having left the feral dog with the vet and the clinic staff; if anything, you did him an even greater kindness--had you stayed with him in the emotional state you were in, he may well have thought the vet was the cause of your grief and things would likely have gone very badly from that response.
NO sane, compassionate human LIKES having any role in ending the life of a healthy animal; in the case of the animals we use as food, a large percentage of the much-publicized abusive handling stems from an attempt by farm and slaughterhouse employees to 'deanimate' the cattle or chickens or hogs so they can perceive them instead as insentient objects...because you don't really care if you break a lightbulb or cut up a cardboard box, but neither of those things will greet you when they see you each day, or try to solicit a little scritch-scritch on the neck when you're trying to herd them into the line to be slaughtered. I AM NOT EXCUSING MISHANDLING OR ABUSE OF LIVESTOCK--I'm just saying I can understand it's origin. People insist on eating--I'm one of them with that pesky habit--so someone has to do the job of obtaining the meat the rest of us buy at the store.
So it is with the euthanasia of physically healthy dogs, or dogs that have health or temperament problems that some deem to be reasonably treatable while others may find them to be insurmountable. It is not something any veterinarian or technician WANTS to do, or is even indifferent to doing; it is, unfortunately, the by-product of our throw-away society that is only concerned with self-gratification, and cares not for who or what becomes collateral damage in the process. Healthy dogs wouldn't need to be euthanized if OUR species was more responsible. Don't blame the people who are left to clean up the messes of others--the veterinarians and the technicians and the shelter workers who have to end the life of animals who did nothing to deserve that fate save for being born as the result of a human's decision (or lack thereof).
VM, you most certainly aren't heartless--a heartless person certainly wouldn't be shedding any tears over this thread, for one thing. You didn't leave your feral dog friend out on his own after he attacked your neighbors, to be hunted down and snared in a frenzied state of terror; you accepted the responsiblity that someone else abdicated long before this dog encountered you and made sure he had a humane escape from this dimension...even though it tore you up then, and it still causes you distress, to have done so. You weren't heartless or weak or cruel for having left the feral dog with the vet and the clinic staff; if anything, you did him an even greater kindness--had you stayed with him in the emotional state you were in, he may well have thought the vet was the cause of your grief and things would likely have gone very badly from that response.
NO sane, compassionate human LIKES having any role in ending the life of a healthy animal; in the case of the animals we use as food, a large percentage of the much-publicized abusive handling stems from an attempt by farm and slaughterhouse employees to 'deanimate' the cattle or chickens or hogs so they can perceive them instead as insentient objects...because you don't really care if you break a lightbulb or cut up a cardboard box, but neither of those things will greet you when they see you each day, or try to solicit a little scritch-scritch on the neck when you're trying to herd them into the line to be slaughtered. I AM NOT EXCUSING MISHANDLING OR ABUSE OF LIVESTOCK--I'm just saying I can understand it's origin. People insist on eating--I'm one of them with that pesky habit--so someone has to do the job of obtaining the meat the rest of us buy at the store.
So it is with the euthanasia of physically healthy dogs, or dogs that have health or temperament problems that some deem to be reasonably treatable while others may find them to be insurmountable. It is not something any veterinarian or technician WANTS to do, or is even indifferent to doing; it is, unfortunately, the by-product of our throw-away society that is only concerned with self-gratification, and cares not for who or what becomes collateral damage in the process. Healthy dogs wouldn't need to be euthanized if OUR species was more responsible. Don't blame the people who are left to clean up the messes of others--the veterinarians and the technicians and the shelter workers who have to end the life of animals who did nothing to deserve that fate save for being born as the result of a human's decision (or lack thereof).
by dave lorentzen on 16 December 2010 - 00:12
lots of rude and nasty comments in this thread! until you walk in someones shoes...
by sable59 on 16 December 2010 - 01:12
THIS TYPE OF S--- SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN. I CAN ONLY SAY IS IS A SHAME!!!
by Robin on 16 December 2010 - 01:12
DOGSHOME9
don't feel bad at least you know in your heart you did the dog right, he went fast and in the arms of someone who he got to feel love from and probably for the first time in his life, who didn't want anything from him.
As has been stated on here from others we Vet. Tech have a hard job more good then bad THANK GOD but it gets really tuff sometimes. When I have a bad day,I go home hug my own dogs (all 5)and look them in the eye and say " I WILL NEVER DO THAT TO YOU"!! and then I tell my husband "Can you believe what this A** hole did today".
Venting is the best medicine.
As far as a Vet not putting a dog to sleep-- If we could not talk them out of it we would do it because we would know it was done right and the dog didn't suffer. BUT we would NEVER go behind a clients back and say we PTS their animal and not do it. VERY WRONG anyway you look at it!!
Robin
don't feel bad at least you know in your heart you did the dog right, he went fast and in the arms of someone who he got to feel love from and probably for the first time in his life, who didn't want anything from him.
As has been stated on here from others we Vet. Tech have a hard job more good then bad THANK GOD but it gets really tuff sometimes. When I have a bad day,I go home hug my own dogs (all 5)and look them in the eye and say " I WILL NEVER DO THAT TO YOU"!! and then I tell my husband "Can you believe what this A** hole did today".
Venting is the best medicine.
As far as a Vet not putting a dog to sleep-- If we could not talk them out of it we would do it because we would know it was done right and the dog didn't suffer. BUT we would NEVER go behind a clients back and say we PTS their animal and not do it. VERY WRONG anyway you look at it!!
Robin
by Mindhunt1 on 16 December 2010 - 02:12
I can see that this thread has pushed some buttons. 
As long as there is money to be made with animals, there's going to be cases where otherwise healthy animals are killed because they are no longer wanted or needed.
I have stayed with every pet (even an iguana) that I have ever put down and spent time with many friends and their animals during this process. It always sucks. I had to euthanize my dog last month, the vet and the vet techs were absolutely wonderful and shared our sorrow, thanks to all of you vet techs and vets that have to euthanize animals and allow them to go with dignity and love.
I have also in the course of my previous career, been there when dog fighting rings and race tracks were busted for cruelty complaints and saw with my own eyes some of the horribly cruel ways used to kill the animals that are no longer useful. I personally would rather the animal die humanely with someone who cares, than go through the horror of some of the other methods that have been used.
As long as there is money to be made with animals, there's going to be cases where otherwise healthy animals are killed because they are no longer wanted or needed.
I have stayed with every pet (even an iguana) that I have ever put down and spent time with many friends and their animals during this process. It always sucks. I had to euthanize my dog last month, the vet and the vet techs were absolutely wonderful and shared our sorrow, thanks to all of you vet techs and vets that have to euthanize animals and allow them to go with dignity and love.
I have also in the course of my previous career, been there when dog fighting rings and race tracks were busted for cruelty complaints and saw with my own eyes some of the horribly cruel ways used to kill the animals that are no longer useful. I personally would rather the animal die humanely with someone who cares, than go through the horror of some of the other methods that have been used.
by Sunsilver on 16 December 2010 - 02:12
I am a registered nurse. Although not a surgical nurse, I have watched surgery, and been perfectly fine with it. I also used to do complex wound care on cancerous tumors and pressure ulcers...the sort of stuff that would have most people running from the room, gagging.
Yet when the vet botched the spay on my GSD, and had to open her up again, I COULD NOT stay and watch. I would have wound up out cold on the floor. I fled the clinic in tears (because he was SUCH a jerk for letting it happen in the first place then refusing to do anything about it!)
I am not sure I could stay and hold my animal as it was euthanized. I would give it a try, but I think I'm the type that would say my good-byes, then wait in the next room until it was over.
Funny, I've seen many patients die, and been okay with it, but I didn't have the emotional bond with them that I do with my animals.
Yet when the vet botched the spay on my GSD, and had to open her up again, I COULD NOT stay and watch. I would have wound up out cold on the floor. I fled the clinic in tears (because he was SUCH a jerk for letting it happen in the first place then refusing to do anything about it!)
I am not sure I could stay and hold my animal as it was euthanized. I would give it a try, but I think I'm the type that would say my good-byes, then wait in the next room until it was over.
Funny, I've seen many patients die, and been okay with it, but I didn't have the emotional bond with them that I do with my animals.
by dogshome9 on 16 December 2010 - 03:12
Euthanasia is and will always be difficult for owners and either being there or not has to be your own decision but for me I will always be there for them, to hold them close and whisper words as they go to sleep 
and try not to cry until they have gone.
During my early days as a vet nurse even if I had never met the animal before, it always brought me to tears and even today 20 years later I am still upset after assisting with the deed.
and try not to cry until they have gone.During my early days as a vet nurse even if I had never met the animal before, it always brought me to tears and even today 20 years later I am still upset after assisting with the deed.
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