From: pastor@prc.unisys.com (Jon Pastor)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.dogs
Subject: Re: Please! Help Save This Adorable Dog from Death!!
Date: 27 Jan 93 21:32:10 GMT
Organization: not much...

In article <1993Jan26.213519.22590@cbnewsi.cb.att.com>, you write:
|> A close friend of mine took her 12 year old, ailing dog to her vet.
|> The dog was blind (and becoming cranky as a result), and was ill
|> with a variety of serious problems. The quality of his life was
|> deterioriating and he was loaded with arthritis.
|> My friend explained to the vet that she wanted the dog put down,
|> it was time, and she wasn't able to deal with the care requirements
|> any longer.
|> The vet absolutely spazzed and castigated her with comments about
|> the availability of medical options, the number of years of good
|> times the dog had given her, 'and now you're tired or
|> bored and you just want to dump the dog'...etc etc.
|> What my friend wasn't able to bring herself to explain (in between
|> insults) was that her husband was dying and between the two she just
|> couldn't handle it. She had to be at the hospital all day&night, and there
|> just wasn't anyone to step in. As the dog was in increasing pain, it
|> seemed the right time to do this.
|>

What your story illustrates is that a medical practitioner who is not given
all of the relevant facts can't make an informed decision.  If the vet had
known that your friend's husband was dying, he'd probably have spared her
the lecture; it's possible that he's a cretin, and that he'd have lectured her
anyway, but I'd bet not.  We had a 14-year-old dog who was somewhat blind,
somewhat deaf, and very arthritic, and we were able to keep him going (and
apparently happy) for another 2 years with a combination of steroids,
aspirin, and carrying him up and down stairs -- so the vet was not out of line
suggesting this course of action.

|> Now maybe this is unusual, and the poodle people (and others) aren't
|> in such a dificult situation...or maybe you agree with the vet.
|> But dealing with overwhelming personal crisis can make you face up
|> to hard decisions which you don't always feel capable of exploring with
|> complete strangers. Unless I know better, I'd like to give people
|> the benefit of the doubt.

More to the point, if you talk to shelter workers -- or, I suspect, to 
vets -- you'll find that you're naive in giving people the benefit of the 
doubt.  At the shelter where we got Katie, I asked about a big rabbit they 
had in a cage; the shelter worker told me that someone had brought it in, 
saying that s/he couldn't take care of it.  When I expressed surprise -- 
I've had rabbits, and they're not what you'd call labor intensive, compared 
to anything but a fish -- her face got clenched and she said that I wouldn't
be surprised by that if I'd worked at a shelter.

|> I have to say that anyone who would
|> want a dog put gently to sleep rather than have to adjust to
|> the confusion of a new home and new people after 5 years, and who would
|> go to the trouble of grooming the dog beforehand, probably
|> love their animal. It may be a little odd, but we each approach things
|> in our own way.

We have adopted two dogs from shelters, one at the age of 8 years, and the
suggestion that he'd have been better off dead than in our home is ludicrous. 
He took about 5 minutes to adjust, and he loved us from the day we brought him
home until the day he died.

Grooming the dog before putting him down was for themselves, not for the dog. 
The dog couldn't have cared less.   He'd rather have gotten a chance to live
with people who loved him.