Euthanasia vs Execution of Companion Animals
This post has stemmed from a discussion on a forum which I am very active. It got me thinking and we all know how dangerous that is.
The discussion sort of centered around the difference between euthanizing an animal and executing an animal. In other words, helping an animal to die when it is sick or putting an animal to sleep because it has bit or is deemed aggressive. It is also important to note that we also execute animals simply because we don't have enough people to take care of the animals that exist now. Please think about this the next time you think about buying a puppy.
I have mentioned before that I am against the death penalty. I do recognize that people who are in prison and have broken the law have given up many of their rights. Most especially the right to freedom. (I don't want this to turn into a discussion on prisoners rights, so roll with me here). As citizens, regardless of political beliefs, we expect people to behave in a certain manner. Or maybe it would be more correct to say, we expect people to not do certain things. For instance, we expect people not to murder people. We expect people not to rape people. When you perform these acts, you have lost the right to be integrated with society.
What if it is a companion animal? What if s/he has bitten or killed some one? Would it be safe to say that animal no longer has the right to be integrated in our society? I have discussed in the past that I have seen dogs that were aggressive that were simply born that way. (A video of an eight week old puppy that bit a human on the face comes to mind). These dogs are not wired correctly and will not get better with time. A dog that shows that much aggression at such a young age is going to get worse and more dominant as s/he gets older. The question then arises, what do we do with these dogs? There isn't a doggie prison (as far as I know, feel free to correct me if I am wrong) where delinquent dogs can be sent for a life sentence. Because of the overpopulation problem that humans have created with companion animals there aren't even enough homes for all the sweet dogs in the world. What have we done?
The other interesting point that this brings me to comes back to prisoners. If dogs can be "not wired right" isn't it possible that humans could be "born that way" as well? If so, is there a solution for imprisonment of these types of criminals? I don't know if it would have been possible to reform a killer like Jeffrey Dahmer.
The whole topic gets even more frightening from this point on. If we can say that humans are born with an urge to kill (or what ever we want to call it), I am sure some one will try and find that gene, isolate it, and some how abuse power and kill all people with said gene.
I am kind of all over the place tonight. Again, this post puts a bunch of questions out there and not a lot of answers. I am interested to hear every ones views on this.
4 comments:
Wow, such a heavy topic, GBV.
i have a hard time dealing with murderers, rapists, thieves, abusers. i don't like fights, i abhor violence and with that, even tho i work in the media, i shrink away from bad news. i'm like the proverbial ostrich, my head in the ground... i know evil is out there, but i can't deal with it.
i support places that do their best to stop the abuse of animals, that's the best i can do. call me a "scaredy cat" or a "chicken," both animal terms that mean "afraid" but my constitution is simply not strong enough to be able to process what happens in this world.
i seriously think i might do myself in if i read about the madness that goes on. and i'm not kidding. i have to protect myself.
Maybe this makes me naive, or more honestly: ignorant. Maybe i never have all the facts, but i know enough of/about the "evil inclination" humans have to know that this world is inherently a scary place.
Thank you for this post... my heart has been hardened from seeing too much pain, from living with it, but i am so incredibly thankful that others are able to be logical and stay informed and bring the news to others so that (i hope!) change will happen... and this world will be one of love and compassion...
Thanks for "listening."
Hi.
Thanks for bringing up the number one reason we execute animals--that we've purposefully and accidentally bred too many and there aren't enough homes.
I don't necessarily have a problem with sadly needing to execute an animal who just cannot be around people. There are no doggie prisons and even if there were we'd have to ask if it's a kinder solution. Dogs don't process time and conditions in the same way we do. So for a dog, being in a cell all day long is torture. He wouldn't know why he was there, he wouldn't realize he'd hurt anyone, he wouldn't be able to read or study for his GED. His whole existence would be staring at the walls, bored and lonely.
If dogs are born that way I have to blame this insane inbreeding we do to create popular "looks." Though I have met feral puppies that look tiny but will tear your face off because they are wild animals (you might as well try to grab and kiss a bear cub). But feral is a whole different matter.
I wish I had an answer on whether people are born that way. This is a topic of much interest to me actually. Most of the research I've read suggests that for anti-social personality disorder (your psychopaths) there is a combination of some physical or genetic pre-tendency and environmental (nurture) factors as well.
I have worked with a lot of animals that were called "monsters" by other people, and while I have met some animals with aggression problems that couldn't be fixed, I've never seen anything in an animal that remotely resembled a human psychopath. Nearly all the animals that I encountered had fear-aggression, which means that if they feel threatened they sometimes attack. That threat might be something we would not view as a threat, like getting too close or trying to pet them, even maybe being in the same room with an animal who has been severely abused. A few have had fear aggression plus food aggression. Food aggression is "don't get between me and my food or else." Human psychopaths hurt people because they enjoy hurting people and lack the capacity to feel empathy, so they attack without feeling threatened or really having any trigger at all.
Nothwihstanding all the arguments (some of which I find thought-provoking and heartfelt, some of which I find callous) in favor of executing either dogs who humans who severely harm others, my sense remains that to some degree, we carry out executions because they're expeditious, which disturbs me, even though I realize we're dealing with constrained resources.
In the case of human executions, I also often detect a feeling of retribution, and I feel that ultimately perpetuates our violent nature rather than eases it.
Difficult as it is, and aware that I don't always live up to my own ideals, I endeavor to have compassion and some reserving of judgment for the most despicable scoundrels among us. Who knows what it's like to be so detached from the rest of the world that you are essentially trapped in your own lifelong prison? As you point out, who knows how much wiring in some humans' - or some dogs' - brains determines their behavior? For those (canine or human) who were severely abused in childhood, are we confident that under the same circumstances we would act any better?
Resource constraints aside, I believe a "doggie prison" could be constructed in such a way that it would be worlds better than execution. We have seen countless times that even the most hardened and violent individuals can change drastically with love and guidance. Doesn't everyone deserve a chance? This seems like the compassionate ideal we should strive to achieve. They say the pen is mightier than the sword; kindness - not to be confused with passivity - may be mightier still.
As you can imagine, this post truly touches home.
As you know, on May 26th, I took the heart-breaking decision to put down my 14-year-old Luscious.
The thing is, I felt and still feel so guilty about it. I made the decision to let her go with dignity. But who the hell am I to take such a decision?!!?!?!
At the vets, I just couldn't stop crying and I was going on and on and explaining to him why I had decided to do this. He didn't want to know because yeah.. she was my dog and it was MY decision. Still kills me to think about it. Saw a dog like my little Lush the other day and still got me to tears.
I truly loved her. I don't have children but I wonder if I could love them more.. hummmm
It was one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do but deep down I know that life for her had become such a struggle. Everything was difficult, even lying in her basket because of her breathing.
I had Lush operated and Honey also. As you mentioned, there are sooo many animals who don't have homes.
We don't have the death penalty here in Canada. But I do believe that some people are truly damaged psychologically and shouldn't have the right to be part of society.
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