Kill, or no kill

I learned today that the Blount County Humane Society (BCHS) opposes a $2 dog license fee to help with the operational budget of the Blount County Animal Center, scheduled to open in mid-October.  Their opposition is based on the grounds that the center will be a so-called kill center.

Blount Countians opposed to the policy are encouraged to withhold the $2 fee.

I don’t know if those of us who take our pets to vets for their annual inoculations, including rabies would also be expected to pay the fee, or if it would apply to those who use public rabies clinics.

What I do know is that this past Friday, we were forced to take our beautiful, beloved, thirteen year-old husky to our kind vet to end her suffering, and I strongly object to the word “kill.”  The word happens to be euthanization, and if there had been a magic potion to stop her suffering and allow her to live on, both we and the vet would’ve embraced it.  The same applies to the other wonderful dogs of ours who preceded her.

I wonder if members of the BCHS would say that as my husband and I clasped and petted our dog and looked into her blue eyes until they saw us no longer that we had “killed” or executed dear Nootka Gray Wolf.  I wonder also if they consider the veterinarian an executioner?

Every veterinarian I’ve known has without exception declared that euthanization is the toughest part of their jobs, and the only consolation to them is that it is fast and merciful, and the animal will suffer no more.

Workers in animal shelters where euthanization is practiced (the majority) are not carrying out the life ending act because they are killers.  I’ve known many of them who become so affected by the task that they become extremely depressed.  To hear their facility called a “kill” shelter doesn’t make their sad job any easier, and the idea that anyone would consider them killers for performing it can only depress them more.

My definition of an animal killer is one who abandons a dog or cat, perhaps making the excuse that some kind person will take it in, whereas a shelter will–yes–kill it.  What is more likely to happen is that the poor, abandoned creature will starve to death or be killed in some very unmerciful manner.

Another type of animal killer is one that makes no effort to avoid a dog or cat in the road, thinking it shouldn’t be out there.  Another type is the hit and run driver who doesn’t bother checking to see if the animal might be saved, or has a collar so that an anxious owner can be notified.

Then there are the killers who won’t have their pets spayed and neutered, allowing more puppies or kittens to contribute to the pet population, and, if the pets are lucky, dropped off at a shelter.

What of the abusers?  Many poor dogs and cats have been tortured in unspeakable ways resulting in horrible deaths.

Euthanization is fast and merciful.

In a perfect world, all pets who end up at shelters would be adopted or rescued.  Unfortunately, the world remains imperfect, and animals, like humans, often get sick and suffer dreadfully.

In that same Utopia, pets who aren’t adopted for various reasons would remain at the shelter indefinitely (and I know at some shelters that is the case, and I wish it were so for all of them including the one in Blount County).

While the vet was preparing to euthanize Nootka Gray Wolf, I said aloud “I wish God had managed this so that for once I didn’t have to play God.”

The vet agreed profoundly, then, with our consent, joined us in playing the role of the Creator, doing the most merciful thing, thus silencing the cries of pain poor Nootka had been uttering for hours as our efforts to save her had failed.

One more point I wish to make amid my tears.

Suppose an animal at a no-kill shelter is in unbearable pain, and the prognosis is a bad one?  Will euthanizing it make killers of the workers in question?

I think not.

What matters to me is that the new shelter will be able to help the myriad pets in the county properly and effectively and mercifully.  I’ve already contributed to it and will contribute more, and if the day comes when euthanization will no longer be necessary, so be it.