I was going through the Wayback Machine, a site which archives old versions of Web sites.  Seems that back in 2002, a friend suggested that in order to achieve the purpose of a quick and painless merciful death of a pet, it’s morally defensible to commit an act of violence.  In other words, It’s OK to shoot your own pet.  That’s the issue, and here’s what I wrote. Just thought I’d share it, because since then  I’ve been down the road I described. 

There is a right way to do such a thing, in which a person stands up to the cold wind and rain of grief and gives the final kindness and mercy that are his burden alone to bear and dispense.  It’s about loyalty, courage and dignity. 

When an old dog or cat gets sick and arthritic and can’t go for walks or jump into the truck or even get on the couch; when she gets sick and can’t keep down her food and looses sight of her toys and looses her bladder in the living room, she looses her dignity.  When she’s at the end beyond help and hope and ready to go on, then her family makes the appointment, takes her up in her blanket and takes off her leash and collar for the last time. 

Euthanasia is an act of mercy, a gift of love and a redemption of that lost dignity.  To do it by any means less than the most gentle, humane and even contrite is an act of shallow and vulgar cowardice, in profound ignorance of the gifts of love and humanity that pets bring to our lives.

To say that such an act of love and such a gift of peace can be morally performed with a weapon, in an act of violence and with an arcing spray of blood, is tragic thinking. With the exception of a situation where to wait for a veterinarian would cause the pet useless suffering.  The gun has its functions and none of them apply here. 

Let’s keep violence and peace clearly before us.  If we allow our sight to dim and they become confused, God help us.

Nothing that grieves us can be called little: by the eternal laws of proportion a child’s loss of a doll and a king’s loss of a crown are events of the same size.

                         -Mark Twain