h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What a horrible entry. Seriously.
This is not a visit to a hair salon, you know...

There is, for instance, absolutely nothing here about valid and invalid reasons for having your dog put to death (no, this isn't sleep!). About the decision process. About possible alternatives. About what the law says about having a pet killed. About what it means for the dog. About guilt and betrayal.

It is all very clinical and matter-of-fact. But: The way the whole procedure is described as it would be for a reasonably healthy dog who can still take a short walk, eat, stand up, and obviously isn't in pain. So why commit this deed? I find that very disturbing indeed. And I cannot imagine that it could be helpful to anyone who finds him- or herself in a similar situation. I therefore see no reason to dwell on this at all. When and if the time really comes, who cares about the ing details of the procedure?

Sorry, this is a gut reaction, but a truly heartfelt one.

This isn't my entry, but I know a lot of dogs who have been taken for 'one last walk' before they have taken that last trip to the vet. That's the sad thing, many dogs are able to walk, but that doesn't mean their life should be prolonged just because we want them to stay with us if they are in pain.

My dog died three years ago having some sort of fit on the floor in my house, 30 minutes after I brought him home from the vet, hoping with the medication he would improve enough to see him through to his 14th birthday, which was only two months away. *I* wasn't ready to see him go, but I should have said goodbye to him at the surgery, because *he* was ready to go. I would have found this entry helpful, although extremely painful.

I REALLY wish I'd known I had to ask for a private cremation.

And no entry can possibly go into valid or invalid reasons for having a dog euthanased, nor the decision process as it is different for each and every dog, and each and every dog's owner.

As for the law, there aren't any laws about killing dogs. Dogs are property, there'd no more be a law about killing a dog than killing your favourite chair.

Sorry Emmily.

In Germany, we have very strict euthanasia laws these days (no wonder, given our history). Nobody, not even a veterinarian, is allowed to kill a pet that is not terminally ill, in permanent pain, or so aggressive that it poses a grave danger. It is not even permitted to kill "superfluous" pets in animal shelters. And certainly not an animal that is considered a mere inconvenience for whatever reason.

Many people here adopt cats and dogs from abroad that would be put to death in their native countries.

I think you completely are misunderstanding the entry. This is NOT advocating for "killing" your dog. It's just explaining what one can expect if or when it becomes necessary. I'm sure you don't support the idea of prolonging an animal's suffering unnecessarily. If you don't know what the procedures or options are, this entry can be helpful. No one wants to think about this, but it is helpful to be prepared.

I still agree with Yarreau, it's too clinical.

I disagree that it's too clinical. I think it's been written without unnecessary sentiment, which would just cloud the facts, but it still shows sensitivity.

I found it to be a useful and well-written entry which I hope I'll remember should I ever be faced with the decision (obviously I hope my dog will die, of very old age, in his sleep dreaming of chasing rabbits).

Deb

It is written with no sentiment at all, and I still find it very disturbing. Going through the process of killing your pet, a member of your family, is not like taking your car in for an overhaul.

No, it's not. But like taking your car in for an overhaul, it is sometimes necessary.

This article was not written to be grief counseling. It was meant to be instructional. And I think it does consider emotional dimensions. In the section concerning whether or not to be with your pet during its last moments, I found it made me think about whether my emotional state would be a factor. I have been thinking about this subject recently because I have an elderly dog with severe arthritis and it may become necessary. I avoided thinking about whether to be there or not but this article gave me an unselfish reason not to be because I know I would be overly emotional. (Hell, I'm getting emotional just thinking about it now.) I know my vet well and feel assured that my dog would be made to feel comfortable and cared for without me in the room.

How people deal emotionally with things like this is as varied as there are people. But what the procedures are can be explained without sentiment and should be.

You're right, it's not like taking the car for a service. I drop the car off, and don't care what happens to it until I get it back. If it needs scrapping because it's final days are here, I just want someone to take it away.

I want to know *exactly* what will happen to my beloved pets, so I can be prepared.

I also don't want to read someone weeping and wailing, as it will make me worse. Just the facts please, from someone who knows EXACTLY what it's like to be grief stricken at this time, without having to share their grief - I can do that in other places when I am not grief stricken myself.

Thank You Mina, Count Zero and Deb

I see those of you that have contributed to h2g2's Edited Guide understand that it is about writing informative factual Entries, which is what this Entry is, factual and informative.

Enough of the dramatics Yarreau, having a beloved dog put to sleep is not killing it, it's ending their suffering, and as Mina said, a dog can still eat and walk and be suffering constant ongoing pain.

This Entry was written based on personal experience. I had Elsa, my 15 and a half year old mongrel put to sleep in September last year, I'd had her since she was six months old. It was a heartbreaking decision to make, I did it for her, her suffering was over, my suffering, of her loss, had just begun.

But due to the way the euthanasia was carried out by the vet, I suffered prolonged distress, as well as grief.

Elsa was standing, with me holding her at the time the euthanasia solution was injected, she fell dying into my arms, it should not have happened that way, Elsa should have been lying down, as Tina, my 13 year old lab cross was many years ago, Tina's was a peaceful death, Elsa's was not.

This Entry was not written by a cold-hearted bitch, it was written to help people avoid the distress I suffered because I didn't know enough about the euthanasia procedure and relative options.

This was also a very emotional Entry to write, I had to take many breaks from it as it was so upsetting for me.

I'm not getting into a prolonged discussion about this, I've said my peace, and that's it, I'll say no more.

I am aware of all that, Emmily. I never doubted your intentions, but that is not how it came across. I really missed a sentence or two in the beginning about how this is the ultimate choice when all other alternatives fail. What I find so disturbing is that it sounds like instructions for getting rid of an unwanted pet this way (which actually seems to be a valid option in the UK), not doing right by a beloved family member.

Also, the entry doesn't mention that many pets will know, or sense, what is about to happen and put up a desperate fight for their lives. Or sometimes the dosage isn't right... It is never going to be all clean and clinical as described here, and that's another reason I said it can't really prepare you for what is going to happen.

I'm sorry about the loss of your dogs, it must have been very hard. Maybe writing about it in this detached fashion helped you come to terms with it...

My 13-year-old dog was stolen from me, so I couldn't be there when he died, as I had promised him. And my other dog unexpectedly died in surgery when she was 11, so we never got to say good-bye to her either.

Trudy was eight.
The people at the city animal shelter were very professional and she enjoyed all the attention she got.
I think she knew her pain was at an end.

They had trouble finding a good vein because she was so dehydrated. I stayed with her. The look in her good eye convinced me she was going to a better place. She had always been uncomfortable in her body and I was firmly aware that there was an intelligence in there that couldn't express itself through barks and whines. Maybe in her new place she can fully be herself.

Very few vets in the UK will put a healthy dog to sleep, just because it's unwanted. What tends to happen is people abandon their dogs because the rescues are all full, then the dogs are PTS as strays.

That is another discussion entirely.

Yarreau, I'm sure that if a dog is 'putting up a desperate fight for its life', its owner would decide that it probably isn't ready to pass on.

I'm sorry about your dogs.

I've only ever been allowed to have pet fish , but I've volunteered at a (no-kill) animal shelter a lot. Well, I did before they moved somewhere else.