Under what circumstances is it advisable to have a dog put to sleep?
Posted by admin in Dog Supplies Q&A, Dog Supplies Tips, tags: Diseases, Dog, Dog Advice, dog care, Dog Diseases, Dog Healths, Dog Operations, dog Q&A, dog supplies, dog supplies advice, Operations, Pet SuppliesUnder what circumstances is it advisable to have a dog put to sleep?
Where it is known that a dog will have to endure continual or recurrent suffering, with little or no prospect of remission, then almost certainly the most humane course of action is to have it painlessly put to sleep. By suffering is meant not only acute or severe pain, but also the consequences of congenital malformations and serious injury, and those slowly progressive illnesses which inevitably can only terminate in death, such as paralysis, cancer and uncontrollable wasting diseases; in fact any disease where severe irreversible damage has been caused.
When an animal is clearly not able to enjoy its life any longer, it is unlikely that many owners would wish to prolong its suffering and would rather let it die with dignity. In law, the dog is the property of its owner and therefore the ultimate responsibility for the decision to have the dog humanely destroyed must be the owner’s. This is why a veterinary surgeon often asks the owner to sign a formal request for euthanasia to be carried out. But naturally enough, faced with such a difficult decision, many owners will rely heavily on the advice and judgment of their veterinarian. Sometimes there is a legal requirement for a dog to be put to sleep because it represents a danger to the health of the general public and other animals, as with those suffering from rabies.
Vets themselves can face very difficult decisions regarding euthanasia – for instance where owners are unwilling or physically unable to give essential treatment or perhaps cannot afford it, or where owners wish to have a perfectly healthy animal put to sleep because they cannot, or will not, look after it. A recent survey in Scotland showed that just over half of the dogs put to sleep by veterinary surgeons were destroyed because of a serious illness or accident, 15 % because of a behavioral problem, and a quarter because their owners had moved, or died, or simply no longer wanted them. In many cases, although the veterinary surgeon finds the task distasteful, euthanasia is usually preferable to a lingering death from illness or to the owner devising his own method of destruction, or simply abandoning the dog.
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