Do you believe that it is true that ANY home is better than euthanasia?

Question

Are you the kind that believes that "anything is better than dead", or would you opt for euthanasia when an animal cannot be found a "good" or better home?? Is living on a chain getting meals whenever people remember and never getting medical care better than euthanazing that dog??
It is hard in rescue to deal with situations like this, but I am tired of prganizations re-homing animals to crappy homes, just to avoid putting them down.
What do other people think???

Answer 1

I think that euthanizing a dog is a better option than sending a dog to live at the end of a chain. I also think it's better to euthanize a dog than to have it live in a cage in a so called no-kill shelter for years on end just being fed and watered because the people that run the place won't place it because it bites, it's old, it is dog agressive, it hates kids, it's unadoptable.... the list goes on....

I think that fate is worse than death.

In my opinion, sometimes the way we save them is to love them, hold them and kiss them and set them free from this miserable life.

I hate that, but I don't think that sending a dog to just any home is a good idea. A good home yes, a perfect home (they don't exist and it's always subjective).

I love my breed (labs). And I want to help the special ones more than anything. I have a soft spot for the senior labs. I just melt when one comes up in a shelter.

I am also all about volume. I can't risk our resources on special needs dogs. We have to be careful. It's not the mission of the organization where I volunteer. We don't rehab - we train service dogs. So I have to go for young, service candidate labs.... If they flunky out, I can adopt them out. I pull tons from shelters. It's about volume. How many can I save. How many can I place in really good homes? I'd place fewer if I started the crap of no kids, owning your own home etc etc. I KNOW we make mistakes but we work hard to find GOOD homes for our dogs. We aren't perfect but I know we do are best by our dogs. I sleep well at night.

I won't put a dog in a home where I wouldn't put one of MY dogs.... that's my criteria. I think that's fair.

But I'd rather euthanize MY dogs than have them tortured or mistreated.

I hate euthanizing dogs. I think it is one of the hardest decisions to make. But sometimes it has to happen. When we solve the over population problem then we won't have to make these decisions.

Answer 2

As much as I don't want to, I think at sometimes euthanasia is better than just putting the animal in any home. My family rescues horses and we go to auctions regularly. I truly believe that an auction is the best place to see just how cruel people can be. I've seen horses with broken legs, and one filly was only six months old and her leg had been broken and re healed so it was at an odd angle. I've seen horses with huge patches of fur and skin missing so you can see the bones. We recently rescued an appaloosa colt who was a zero on the horse body condition scale. He's managed to pull through and is doing fine, but others aren't so lucky. Some horses, when you seem them, it'd be most humane to get a vet and put them down right away. I believe in trying to find a good home for every animal, but if no good home is available, and there's no room for the animal at the rescue, then use, I believe that euthanasia should be used.

Answer 3

Yeah, I agree.
I don't understand how people can think years in a cage at a shelter is a good thing. Granted, they have shelter and food, but mostly there's no one "lovin' on them", which they so desperatly need.
All in all, right now, there are far too many animal to ever re-home. I think that for, say, 1 year, the euthanasia rate should, at least, triple.
Just to get the numbers down to manageable.

I live in Sacramento. Recently a "save them all or don't bother" type of rescuer started taking in cats. Well, a year later she had hundreds of cats, no resourses to feed them all, and fled the county rather than admit she was wrong, and deal with the consequenses.
I think that's wrong.
I think so much more good would be done if the problem wasn't so huge.

BUT

The newest trend is that no one can adopt unless they own their home, and have a stay at home parent.
That's just not feasible either.
I can't tell you how many good homes have been denied for stupid reasons.

Answer 4

I think abuse should never happen to a dog. I don't think tethering is a great idea unless it is a last resort.

I do think too many decent homes may be bypassed while looking for a "perfect" situation and that costs animals their lives. I don't like the way everyone raises their pets. But not everything is abuse. And many times people who would provide decent homes are turned away causing animals to die needlessly.

One day an elderly man and his son brought in a haggard old reddish-brown dog to the vet clinic. She had a piece of bailing chord tied around her neck for a leash, and she had fleas. She had worms. But she was fat. And she looked at that old farmer with such love. He baby talked her and petted her. It was love. She didn't have a perfect life living in an old barn. But she lived to an old age, and was happy. Should she have been euthanized young? Or did she feel she had a good life. She wasn't afraid of the guys. She seemed happy, just looked haggard. I'm not sure we should say that no life is better than a life that is less than perfect.

Answer 5

As sad as it might be, I do not believe that any home is better than euthanasia. Sometimes a quick, merciful end of suffering is the only thing a compassionate society can do.

Years ago when I was still breeding afghans, the local rescue called me when they got in an adult afghan who weighed 23 pounds, had ugly open sores over both hip bones, and she couldn't stand. This poor girl had been in her 2nd home, one a rescue had put her in.

I know of other stories, including the female I have now, but this is the one I've never been able to get out of my head.

She recovered, but how many don't? They suffer day after endless day. Euthanasia would be a mercy for them.

Answer 6

I have mixed feelings about it.. I don't think any dog should be at an exclusively outdoor home for instance.. But, I can't stand groups that don't even call your references, they just look and see "under 25" and look no further.. That's annoying too.. There's just such a fine line.. I hate when they don't adopt out to you just because you're young and might give it up later.. So long as the home's decent and they agree to return it if it doesn't work out, that should be good.. I mean, granted, you want every home to be a forever home, but, if the home is otherwise ideal statistic shouldn't keep a place from adopting out an adult animal to a younger person.

Answer 7

Everyone seems to agree and I do as well. Sometimes Euthanasia is a much better sacrifice than finding any old home to put the dog in so it doesn't have to die.

Some homes are death and you guys have some good examples of why I stand behind Euthanasia in certain cases.

Answer 8

I don't support euthanasia, but would prefer it to animals living in horrible conditions, emaciated and in prolonged suffering.
I've volunteered for the ASPCA and the conditions in which some of the dogs and cats are found make me cry, but animals have the ability to move on with their lives, once they find a good home with people who don't treat them as victims, but as pets.
So, my answer is NO, even with my feelings towards euthanasia, to me, it is better than torture, mistreatment and neglect.

However, and additionally, I think that people should be investigated in depth before allowed to rescue animals (not the superficial manner in which I've seen it done), and it's difficult, if not nearly impossible to maintain supervision on all of these people once they have adopted, but perhaps we can develop a system to maintain some sort of light supervision, even through volunteers.

Answer 9

It shouldn't happen.

Yes, euthanising an animal is bad; but it's better than letting it get abused or neglected.

In situations like this; fostering works. The animal goes home with a shelter/rescue worker to live until a home is found; this way there is space for animals in the shelter too.

Answer 10

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