How to convince someone it's time?

[Diana Holbrook]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

I'm just going by what she herself stated in another thread about putting a pet down because her carpets and some sort of couch were being ruined. She was ready to take the cat to the vet and have "it" euthanized because she was tired of the damage to her carpets and couch.

I would do what? I answered that question in that thread.

And you said in that thread that you also feel it would be wrong for her to give it up either, that was unreasonable to you. So if she couldn't solve this problem, there was no choice she could do that was acceptable to you except let her couch and home be ruined.

I bet I have more animals than most of you. Seven cats, three dogs, two horses, nine goats, two sheep, fifteen chickens and a pig. We have spent a considerable sum to have a place capable of providing good care to all of them. But it means we have to have limits on what resources we can give any one of them. We have to.

I love people who have a pet or two and say we must exhaust all available energy and resources on that pet no matter what the cost. Most of the rest of us have limits. And that's OK. I don't think it's wrong to have limits. Let me be clear, we have a duty to treat our animals humanely. That doesn't mean any of them get to ruin our finances, or our homes, or put everyone else at risk.

I strongly disagree with any vet who would refuse to humanely euthanize a pet that an owner had reached their emotional or financial limit with. Especially one who had no good future as a rescue, who would take away resources from other deserving pets they are struggling to place. In a country where millions of very deserving pets are killed every year because there's no room for them, that sounds ridiculous.

We have a duty to our pets to not burden others with them when they become too much. I agree with you on that. But that means we need to be able to set a limit that is fair to us too.

I hope this all stays, because it can be a constructive argument, and I hate putting a lot of effort into posts that end up deleted for being off topic. It has obviously become the topic here.

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by Diana Holbrook

At least we agree, this forum hasn't been particularly helpful.

She doesn't have a lot of options. I doubt if anyone here has the magic words to make this guy agree to euthanasia — he apparently won't even make an appointment with the vet to get the dog checked out after what was probably a stroke. She legally can't have the animal put down without his consent, as she's threatening to do. She can, however, make an appointment with the vet for a general checkup. Maybe the vet can talk some sense into the guy, although I doubt it. But maybe he can give the dog something to make his last days less painful. That would be my priority right now.

[Mikala43]

Advice has been given.