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I've had to do this more times than I care to think about. Used to live to far out to be having to haul animals into the vet and moving them would have caused more pain. It's a sickening feeling and I usually wound up pitching the gun away just before busting into tears afterwards. Then digging a hole. The vet only put down one animal, and we didn' know he was terminal when we took him in. Just thought he was sick. Not terminally so.
Losing a beloved animal is bad enough, having to put one down yourself is the worst experience I can bring to mind.
My Dad said he has shot his last dog. He can't take it anymore. Future ones will be euthed at the Vet. I know it's humane, but I could not cope with it.
When I was a teen I asked for money to euthanize my bunny and he said no, and I knew he was going to shoot him.
And, actually I was also still trying to save bunny (he knew I couldn't, but let me try). I was crying so hard the Vet did it for free. I had promised to make payments and meant it, but he was kind to me.
Get real. Being shot in the head is NOT as compassionate as some are claiming here. The poor animal is with someone it loves and trust and bam, violent assault. You DON'T know what it's final thoughts and feelings are after that. If you must kill a pet, for Pete's sake take the pet to the vet to die peacefully. Vets these days allow pet owners to comfort their animal during. If you have one that won't let you be with to comfort and want to, find one that will. But don't do violent damage to the pet's head with ballistics and call that mercy. Unbelievable.
You think it's any different stopping their heart? Except for the gore (that only the human experiences) it's the same thing.
I was totally hysterical after putting my cat to sleep. I may as well have delivered the kill shot myself.
There is very little difference in the speed of death, it's almost instantaneous in either case. Although you might argue that being outdoors in the open air is a more pleasant final setting for the animal than in a cold and frightening vet's office.
They don't know it's coming. At the Vet's, they know something unpleasant is. We don't know how they feel under the sedative while we pet them and cry and talk to them before the kill shot. They might feel like **** while we are doing that.
I actually don't think that poster was referring to the three-drug cocktail used in human executions - in fact, reading her post, I don't think he/she had the slightest idea what drug or drgus are injected in animal euthanasia. I think that poster's only knowledge comes from personal experience undergoing a human surgical procedure, and from watching a vet chemically euthanize a pet.
Yes, and that's how it goes provided the IM sedative dose was adequate, and that the animal doesn't have a paradoxical excitement response to the sedative.
Most people have heard of the three drug "cocktail" given to death row inmates in considerable detail due to problems obtaining them making the media and so they have that in mind.
I WORKED in an animal shelter, and part of my job was helping put animals down after transporting them to a local veterinarian who did the actual injections, as a dog owner I've been through it with every one of my dogs, most of them done at home by my vet as a house call, a sedative in the rump, followed a few minutes later with the one IV in the vein in the foreleg and the dog is gone before all of the drug is even out of the syringe.
If someone really wants to scream about this guy and his dog on the beach being "cruel" or whatever, maybe they should watch this youtube video I did- a young woman living in her RV with her dog full time recently posted her video showing her dogs' "natural" death!
The dogs' death I think was from a cancer, it was definitely terminal, it was the woman's METHOD I objected to- she let him have a "natural" death where he lingered on for 11 DAYS and stopped eating days before he finally had seizures and died on her bed. The dog was obviously suffering and she described in detail the seizures he started having towards the end. She let that go on for 11 days instead of taking him to a vet. A "natural" death is rarely ever a peaceful passing on during sleep, most of the times a "natural" death is gruesome and horrible.
The lady rambles on for almost an hour in this video but she describes it more towards the end of the video, using the first part to talk about it.
This is the 21st century, we don't shoot animals to end there suffering anymore (except for emergencies). Go to the vet and get it done the right way.
Except for the fact it doesn't always go that way, I had an old dog who was suddenly dying, rapid breathing, weakness, out of it, unable to get up, it was some kind of cancer or organ failure and she went down rapidly from it. It happened late at night on a New Years eve holiday during a major blizzard, I phoned my 80+ year old vet's after hours emergency number and they contcted him at home, he called and said he was very sorry but due to the blizzard and road conditions he couldn't come out until daylight.
So we had to wait it out for 6-7 hours until he arrived, with his grand daughter.
I had a coworker/friend who lived in the country (Mississippi). His neighbor asked him to come shoot one of his dogs to avoid the vet bill - much like this story is about. My friend said he did so as a favor with much hesitation. The other dogs watched and after he shot the dog, those other dogs never looked at him the same way. He regretted it forever.
For horses, if you draw a straight line from one ear to opposite eye, then draw another straight line from the other ear to opposite eye, the mark where the two lines intersect is where you shoot a horse. If you're on a trail up in the hills and your horse breaks a leg, you better hope someone has a gun.
I had a coworker/friend who lived in the country (Mississippi). His neighbor asked him to come shoot one of his dogs to avoid the vet bill - much like this story is about. My friend said he did so as a favor with much hesitation. The other dogs watched and after he shot the dog, those other dogs never looked at him the same way. He regretted it forever.
For horses, if you draw a straight line from one ear to opposite eye, then draw another straight line from the other ear to opposite eye, the mark where the two lines intersect is where you shoot a horse. If you're on a trail up in the hills and your horse breaks a leg, you better hope someone has a gun.
I don't understand this. Broken legs can be fixed. We don't always have to put horses down anymore when they are injured.
And IDK why your friend shot a dog in view of the other dogs ............
I don't understand this. Broken legs can be fixed.
With horses, not always (or even usually). And if your horse has a severe fracture, and you're a two-hour ride away from a vet...
It's not right to make a mortally injured animal suffer unnecessarily because of squeamishness. That's why folks who spend a lot of time riding in remote and rugged backcountry areas often carry a firearm. The vet's a long way away.
Edited to add: A couple of basic primers on equine fractures:
I don't understand this. Broken legs can be fixed. We don't always have to put horses down anymore when they are injured.
And IDK why your friend shot a dog in view of the other dogs ............
A broken leg is usually a death sentence for a horse. They just cannot be treated the way smaller animals can. It takes VERY specialized equipment and facilities to even try, and even with all of that it is seldom successful. You just can't keep weight off the broken bone for the length of time it takes a broken bone to heal. They need to be in a special sling, and for a severe break, the time involved makes that impossible without 24/7 heavy sedation which does more damage than the break. A horse is just to big and they are too dependent on all four feet holding them up. A horse cannot function with three legs. It is a physical impossibility.
I remember a case of a race horse .A more than promising filly named Ruffian who broke her ankle at the starting gate in a one on one race against Secretariat himself, and she was favored to win. The had her in that sling I mentioned for two weeks, and evenwith sedation they were unable to keep her still enough for any healing to even begin. A muli million dollar horse with all the resources of veterinary science behind her. All to no avail. No, broken legs and horse is a sad case of a medical near impossibility.
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