Who can be trusted?

If true (unfortunately, I have learned to trust almost no person or source), this is incredibly sleazy and cruel:

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that Marian Harris and her family had brought their dog, Sid, to the Camp Bowie Animal Clinic in May 2013 to deal with a common anal gland problem. When Sid seemed to be getting worse by September, the family was told he would need to be put down because of a congenital spinal defect.

Staff at the Camp Bowie Animal Clinic agreed to take care of the euthanasia and burial arrangements. So, the family said their final goodbyes and left Sid at the clinic.

Marian Harris said that she was “shocked” when she got a call six months later from one of the clinic’s former veterinary technicians, telling her that Sid was still alive — and he could walk.

The former employee reportedly said that the animal was being kept in a cage littered with feces for almost 24 hours a day. She said that she had quit because of the way the animals were mistreated.

Years ago, I had a dog named Chatty, who developed lymphoma. I paid for chemotherapy, but eventually that wore off, and he was getting pretty bad, so I brought him in and left him for what I was pretty sure would be a “final exam.” Sure enough, they called to tell me the bad news.

I thought it over carefully (I have had to have dogs put down several times) and did not want to upset the dog by a visit in my agitated state. Dogs have a way of knowing things are wrong, and I thought, well, he is in the middle of routine stuff, so it would be kinder to let them just give him the shot without my weepy weirdness which he wouldn’t understand (and which was about me and not Chatty).

So now for the first time I find myself wondering, “How do I know what actually happened to Chatty?” Which I really shouldn’t, because I’m pretty sure they were trustworthy vets.

But an incident like this injects doubt which shouldn’t be there.

I hope the place is ruined by lawsuits and never gets to “treat” another animal.

MORAL LESSON? Trust no one. If your pet has to be euthanized, I guess you just have to make sure you are there to watch the ordeal.


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6 responses to “Who can be trusted?”

  1. CapitalistRoader Avatar
    CapitalistRoader

    It’s not a physical ordeal for the animal. A shot to relax it and a shot to stop the heart. An ordeal for the owner for sure but I figure my long-time pet companion deserves my presence in its final moments.

  2. TallDave Avatar

    Yeah, I worry about this a lot now that my cats are getting older. I would have to be there, can’t even imagine how angry I’d be if they did this.

    Animals do seem to have some instinctual understanding of end of life, fwiw.

  3. great Unknown Avatar
    great Unknown

    With all due respect, your rationale for not being there at the end for Chatty sounds more like a rationalization.

    If you could ask Chatty the question in your headline, how do you think he would answer regarding you?

  4. Old Curmudgeon Avatar
    Old Curmudgeon

    We were fortunate. The vet came to our house, to spare our dog the stress of an office visit, and gave her the two shots while we were with her. She was a sweet dog and we didn’t want to say good-by but the cancer was too much for her to beat.

  5. Man Mountain Molehill Avatar
    Man Mountain Molehill

    I give this a big, fat WTF? Why didn’t they kill the dog, and why did they keep it in appalling conditions? Makes no sense as reported, was something else going on?

    Also, I thought prevailing wisdom in Texas is that a man should shoot his own dog.

    If euthanizing animals is so easy and painless, what’s the big deal about lethal injection executions? Just use the same stuff.

  6. Larry Allen Avatar

    Been there, done that (twice). A terribly painful ordeal. But those two pets gave me so much companionship and so much pleasure for so many years that I felt I owed it to them to be there, trying to give them a bit of comfort in their last moments.

    I realize they’re not people, and they almost certainly don’t think and/or feel the same way we do. But my own feelings are all I have to go on. And when my time comes, I hope I’ve got at least one friend in the room with me.