I couldn't have said it better Lee, you are an excellent writer and you express yourself beautifully.
Lorrie On 09-25, Lee Evans wrote: > The problem with euthanasia for pets is that most people will use it > for their own convenience. I have seen this happen several times and > it's really terrible but there is no crime in killing an animal. We do > this every day to eat them, for sport, as trophies or just because we > don't want them any more. They don't match the new sofa or they might > scratch the new sofa. I have a cat rescued from the vet clinic when > the woman I was sitting next to who had a lovely white male cat in a > carrier told me she was having him euthanized because he was an outside > cat and it was too much trouble to call him in at night. Another woman > brought in her two older cats, lovely Maine Coon mixes, obviously still > full of life to have them "put to sleep" because she and her husband > were going on a world tour. And a third woman was getting married and > her husband to be hated cats so off went her 8 year old Persian mix. > Well, not exactly off. I adopted the white cat. I still have him. He > tested FIV+ because the woman had not bothered to neuter him as a > teen. He's in my little FIV+group, perfectly happy to be indoors. The > world tour people left their cats at the vet clinic and one of the > techs adopted them and the idiot who was marrying a cat hater never > knew that her cat was adopted by one of the secretaries at the vet > clinic. But these success stories happened because I was there and > convinced the technician and the secretary that death was unfair to the > cats and they agreed. > Veterinary medicine is still for the benefit of the "owner". Animals > are considered property rather than individuals with the right to > having a caregiver and the right to their own lives. We choose not to > see the suffering of a truly terminally ill companion animal because we > don't want to feel the pain of the loss. We choose not to see how > unethical it is to kill millions of cats and dogs because there are > "too many" around or they are positive for some disease that they do > not have at the present time and may never actually come down with or > any number of other reasons we use to murder non-human animals. > Everyone will eventually die. It's a bad plan but we had no say in > it. However, the idea that we have to kill animals because they might > die of this or that is not ethical. The idea that a human is so > precious that we keep him or her alive way past reason is equally > illogical and unethical. I don't have any answers so I try to use > logic. I don't euthanize for convenience. I allow maximum care for my > rescued cats, for my FeLv+ cats and my FIV+ cats. I watch to see if > their lives have gone beyond the limit of being useful to them, not to > me and then I accept the pain it will cause me and allow them to pass > on. I don't tell myself fairy tales about where they go. I miss them > and I accept the grief knowing that they are no longer in pain or > distress. > > Spay and Neuter your cats and dogs and your weird relatives and nasty > neighbors too! _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list [email protected] http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
