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We are talking about hunting hounds..........not just anyone COULD take them.
They are not pets.
Sure Not they are Trained to Kill Bears! Wonder how long it would take them to Kill a human! Not giving them to just anyone is Being Responsible dog owner!
But what about the dog you got as a PET the one that You said keeps you company sleeps in the house?
Very interesting article. I think this will never be easy - not for ethical vets, not for pet owners.
I had a dog that had very serious biologically-based psychological issues and I was the one who refused to euthanize the dog until we just had no other choice. The vets, and I went to many trying to find a solution, all suggested it as an option with varying degrees of belief that it was the right thing. When we found out we were moving from our 3 acre mini-farm, where we could keep her away from other humans, to one of the most densely populated areas in the nation I had to come to terms with reality. When I told the vet where we were moving he told me the time had come, he even had the four other vets from the practice come in to say they agreed. Basically, according to them, if she were a human she would be institutionalized. It still wrenches me to talk about it.
I just don't understand, and I guess will never understand, how people justify killing what is supposed to be a beloved pet if they don't have health issues, serious behavioral issues, or aggression that can't be resolved. I do feel bad for people that get pushed in a corner and feel they have no other realistic option. However, I just don't get it when they have been offered another option and they still choose a convenience euthanasia.
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I went through something a bit similar, albeit this happened over 30 years ago. My best friend and I always had pets, and for several years she had a very active young dog named Snoopy. He was a Heinz 57 dog - who knows what was in him - and my friend and I used to take our dogs with us everywhere.
When the two of us ended up in serious relationships - both with men we would go on to marry - my friend and I wound up going our separate ways. I didn't care for her fiance, she didn't care for mine. Then I moved away, and we didn't see or hear from one another for several years.
About 5 years later we reconnected, both of us newly divorced. In catching up on old times, at one point I asked her what had ever happened to Snoopy, as she no longer had him. (My own dog had died from heart failure during the interim.) She told me that when she and her fiance were moving out of her parents' home and into their own apartment, it was in a building that didn't allow pets, and she decided that Snoopy would pine away and lose hope if he wasn't with her, that he couldn't live without her, so she opted to have him put to sleep. When I heard this I was absolutely gutted...I couldn't believe that she would have done such a thing, and I was certain that the true reason for her decision was not in that Snoopy would pine away, but it was a matter of convenience, in appeasing others. I knew that her fiance/husband didn't like animals and would not have allowed her to keep Snoopy no matter where they lived, but what I didn't understand was why she couldn't at least try to find her dog a good home. Mind you, that would have been no easy task - back then, dogs were not as common family pets as they are today, and Snoopy was not the easiest dog to have - but still, I was completely devastated over her decision, and I did wonder if I could be friends with her at all after this.
In the end I decided to let it go, and we did stay in contact, and we remained good friends. She went on to have several pets in her life, from cats to rabbits to other dogs, and she always took good care of them, taking in dogs who were abandoned or were being threatened with a bullet to the head by previous 'owners'. Recently she was torn over what to do with one of her cats, who has been sick for several years with a chronic respiratory infection. Her family members had all been telling her to have the cat put down, not because the cat was suffering, but because the cat's nasal discharge was rather gross to look at, and the tons of medication the cat was on was costing a small fortune. She was considering it, but then she called me to ask about it as she didn't feel "right" about it, as the cat was so healthy otherwise. She wound up finally taking the cat to another vet who prescribed a totally different medication, and within a few weeks her kitty's respiratory issues were completely gone.
OP, all I can really say is to go with what your gut tells you to do. For myself, what my friend did with her dog so many years ago still haunts me over 30 years later, yet it was something that I believe she felt pressured into doing, living with an abusive father and - as it later turned out - an abusive husband as well. I believe she was trying to convince herself that she did the right thing, even though I suspect it tore her apart. This is what my "gut" told me. If she were to be nonchalant about her pets all the time, as part of her nature, I couldn't have had any more contact with her. I think that's what we need to do whenever faced with a dilemma over a friend's actions and decisions...ask ourselves if is it something we can forgive and move on from, or is it something that signals it is time for the friendship to end. Only you will know.
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