The Difficult Ones

I was talking with a veterinarian friend of mine earlier this week.  She and I try to connect with one another, even if it's just for a few moments, every week.  We've known each other for years and share a love not just of animals, but of donuts, coffee, and 80's hairbands. All kidding aside, this week our conversation turned to those difficult appointments, the ones where we are the bearers of bad news.  It's stressful having to tell people things that you know will be painful for them and hard to hear, but that's part of our job as well.  Where our professions seriously overlap is in the area of behavioral euthanasia.  While no veterinarian wants to or enjoys euthanizing a pet for a behavior problem, they also realize that there is such as thing as mental health in animals and some mental health issues in animals aren't treatable long term IF their behavior continually puts them, and the humans in their home and out in public spaces, at risk. Re-homing an animal who has bitten multiple times only means that poor animal has to be stressed out and overwhelmed moving to yet another home environment where they are surely going to bite someone again.  While re-homing may make a pet owner (or rescue group) feel good in the short-term, re-homing aggressive animals who bite people or kill other animals doesn't help anyone, and can cause irreparable harm.  Some animals are simply not wired correctly.  It is truly a blessing that we can spare them further anxiety through humane euthanasia.

Now, before any of you get ticked off at me for not trying harder to save these animals, let me set the record straight.  I am not someone who takes behavioral euthanasia lightly.  I have certainly met pets who were simply in the wrong home environment, unable to thrive there.  For those pets, I strongly recommend re-homing them so that they can find their perfect match, that place where they will feel safe and seen.  I have met perfectly wonderful pets, who through no fault of their own, ended up in a home with someone who just didn't understand them or wasn't equipped to meet their needs.  So, yes, I strongly suggested that they be re-homed so that they could find their happy place.  And, obviously, I've helped clients find that perfect match; that pet that suits their lifestyle and temperament.  But the bottom line is this:  If you have a pet in your home who is a risk to you or others, I am not going to sugar-coat the situation, nor am I going to tell you to "just keep at it." No. I'm going to suggest that you speak to your veterinarian about a full physical and metabolic workup to make sure that there isn't some medical reason for the behaviors you are seeing.  It isn't normal for a dog to bite people; let's rule out pain, discomfort, disease, etc. first.  If there isn't a medical reason for the aberrant behavior, we have to assume that the animal isn't wired correctly and then humane euthanasia becomes part of the discussion.

My veterinarian friend and I share a handful of clients and she has done a few humane euthanasias for behavior problems that were unsolvable and creating dangerous situations for their owners. Neither she nor I found joy in these situations, but we did find peace in the knowledge that we kept that animal from biting another person.

As always, if you have questions about your pet's behavior, you know where to find me.

Donuts and coffee, shared with a friend, in good times and bad.