What is your opinion of putting animals to sleep when they aren't sick?

Question

Not like I am going to do it. I am actually supposed to write a persuadsive essay for english and I need some ideas well actuall opinions!

Answer 1

If the animal is not dangerous, as long as there are shelters in this world, it is completely selfish and unnecessary.

Answer 2

I hate it - hate it - hate it.

The only acceptable circumstances I know of for this is when the animal is really aggressive and behavioural therapy has failed. I still hate this, but sometimes there is no option - many shelters will not take on an aggressive animal, and if there are children involved the risk of keeping the animal in the house cannot be taken. Sometimes there is just no other option - I myself have tried and tried and tried to find someone to take an owner's aggressive dog, but no one wanted to know, even charities I had previously put all my faith in.

If you're writing a persuasive essay I think it may be difficult to address both sides of the other reasons for putting healthy animals to sleep - like owners just not wanting them anymore! You could address the problems faced by vets when owners demand their healthy pets are put to sleep. It's all very well refusing to kill a healthy animal yourself - but what's the alternative? The owner could just find a vet who will do it - and if they all refuse, you're running the risk of the owner doing it themself using an inhumane method. What can you really do?

There's one other point I can think of you might want to write about in your essay - owners with Munchausen's by proxy syndrome. This is where people pretend others are sick, or think they are when they aren't in order to get treatment. It happens with pets too! Sometimes people will even make the person or animal sick on purpose because they want it to be treated. This can end up with the owner insisting on the animal being euthanized even when there's nothing wrong with it. How on earth is a vet to deal with this situation?! I don't fully understand the syndrome - here's a link on it:
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1636598
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munchausen_by_proxy

Hope this is useful info for you!

Chalice

Answer 3

i think some animals do need to be put to sleep. some animals cant get along w/ other dogs or bite people constantly or dont like people dont get me wrong i think a person should do their BEST to train the animal but if theres no hope for the dog you might as well put the dog down... if you dont the dog could get really stressed about anything and everything! or if the dog is really old and cant walk or anything i believe the dog should be put out of his misery but it is very SAD when dogs do get put down! (though there is never a bad dog, just a bad owner)

Answer 4

Not only is it completely humane, it is quite often the best thing to do.

here's why.
1) too many "pet" animals in the world. The population of cats and dogs far outnumbers the amount of available homes for them.

2)Completely painless and un-cruel. I have put down thousands of animals. Not one suffered. They dont understand the idea of death, so they dont fear it ( they may get uncomfortable by being in new surroundings, but not afraid of dying). The methods use a lethal injection mix of muscle relaxant and anesthesia. Trust me, if you had to die, this is the way you would want to go.

3) Where else would the animal have a chance to go? If you have to get rid of your pet (not because you want a new one) where will you place him. Other than direct family, there is no where else. Friends may not treat the dog as well as you. Newspapers? not if you care about the quality of life for your pet. Many people take animals from newspaper ads and use them as bait for their fighting animals.
No kill shelters are pretend shelters. They dont address the problem they just house 3 or 4 animals at a time. Call one. see if they have space. Ask if they accept all animals, regardless of age and regardless of space. They probably dont. That means they make another shelter do the job they are unable to do, but they act like they are holier than thou.
Out in the wild? nope . Animals left to fend for themselves have awful, painful lives. They dont just run away to a "farm" and live happily ever after. They get poisoned, shot, tortured, hit by cars, starve, beaten and worse.

If you have an animal you can no longer care for by all means put him to sleep humanely. Just ask the Humane society for their opinions. All of these people who say otherwise have absolutly no concept of the real world.

Answer 5

if the animal isn't suffering and can do all the things that it could before like eating drinking and bathroom habits then there is no reason to put the animal to sleep. older animals can live happy lives even if they are deaf or blind or both. our dog is deaf and he's learned sign. he's fourteen years old and still happy and healthy.

Answer 6

Unacceptable...period! I can understand if the animal is very ill and there is no chance of recovery or if the animal is dangerous and won't respond to retraining. But other than that, it's cruel!!!

Answer 7

I Wouldn't Put My Animal Asleep If nothing was wrong with it.

My Answer:Thats Wrong

Answer 8

Unless the animal poses an extreme danger, or is teminally ill, it's wrong.

Answer 9

Don't do that. There is someone who will take the animal and love it, take care of it and provide a wonderful home. Lots of animal lovers out here!!

Answer 10

There's no reason to put an animal down unless:

A. They are terminally ill
B. They are dangerous

Anything else is unacceptable.