Economic Euthanasia

I recently read two good magazine articles about the rise of “economic euthanasia” during the country’s current financial crisis.  Economic euthanasia is the term used when an owner chooses not to treat their sick (and curable) pet for financial reasons, and it also refers to people who choose to have their pets euthanized because they can no longer afford to take care of them.  It’s not surprising that this depressing procedure is happening more and more often, but what was encouraging about the article was that many people are instinctively taking action to help stop it.  Dr. Patty Khuly, who writes the blog Doolittler, is quoted in the article as saying her animal hospital has seen a big upswing in the number of donations made by clients to help other clients and pets in need.  The article also mentions that the animal retirement and pet hospice movement continues to grow, and that’s encouraging.  If you’d like to read the article, you can find it in last month’s issue of Veterinary Practice News.  I’m afraid I can’t link to the second article I read, which is in the current issue of VPN, because it isn’t online yet.  However, you might be interested in reading about the increasing popularity of palliative and Pawspice services.  As someone who specifically tries to adopt elderly/senior animals, I like knowing there are options available for me to care for the animals at home towards the end of their lives.

One disagreement I have with the first article is the author’s claim that vet clinics should reject convenience euthanasia, and should direct the pet owner to use their community’s shelter services.  I’d hate to think the author was advocating that the owner surrender their unwanted pets to an overcrowded shelter system, where the pet is likely to be euthanized, but only after a few days of terror in a place full of strange smells and noises.  I can understand the unwillingness to perform these euthanasia services in the vet clinic, but if you’re advocating for the animal, it seems you’d want it to be as comfortable as possible.  This seems especially important if the animal is older or a large mixed breed—animals generally considered “unadoptable”.  I don’t know how I’d handle the situation if was a vet in my own clinic, though, so I don’t want to be really black/white about the issue… it’s difficult.  The animal hospital we go to doesn’t perform convenience or economic euthanasia, but asks the pet owner to surrender their animal so it can be rehomed.  That’s how we ended up with quite a few of our cats, and also why so many of the clinic staff have so many animals (one vet tech has 20 cats, as well as a few kids… busy woman!).

One last point to take away from the first article I posted:  your tax dollars pay whenever someone decides to drop their pet off at the city animal shelter.  Your tax dollars aren’t involved in the operation of private rescue and sanctuary facilities in the slightest (unless you choose to make a donation), but you’re automatically contributing to local animal control via your property taxes.  If you’re concerned about your taxes rising, be concerned about people who aren’t caring for their pets properly, because those are the people who are using up the local shelter’s budget and forcing taxes to increase.  There’s a oft’ quoted statement about the penal system, which says that it costs more to execute a person than it does to keep them in prison for life.  That applies to animal care as well—it costs more for animal control to euthanize a pet than it does for them to keep the animal alive and offer it for adoption.  No-kill shelters can actually be less expensive to run than kill shelters, when properly administered, but that’s a topic for another time.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 06/09 at 10:16 AM

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