What seems like common sense to so many people may not have ever occurred to others, so just in case you haven't given any consideration to the matter, we're going to pass along this valuable lesson from South Carolina's Post and Courier: "'There are humane ways to euthanize an injured dog,' said Dr. Sarah Boyd, a veterinarian at Charleston Animal Society. Using a hammer and machete is not among them, she said." On second thought, you should probably read the whole thing.
Friday, October 16, 2009
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I think it's about how you use the hammer and machete.
Right, what was he doing, holding the blade and beating the dog with the handle? And hell, even that might work.
He sounds kind of like a weenie. The other guy was able to grab them out of his hands and use them on him.
On the other hand, he took multiple hammer blows to the head and still had the strength and good sense to go sit in his car and wait for the police.
Is it just me, or did that Gladwell piece in the NYer this week get no traction whatsoever? I thought it was an interesting piece that made explicit what we all kind of knew.
totally agree. I read that and was waiting for the uproar. I blame balloon boy.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/10/19/091019fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all
The heartbreaking part about the Gladwell article was the last few graphs, where outlawing American football is just ruled out as if it were logically impossible. (Sorry, Abe!)
well...there is also that whole thing about the players being willing participants. I thought the article was tremendous, though.
Of course later that day Gladwell was on PTI, and the conversation was actually interesting. For a five-minute conversation, they covered a decent amount of ground of the topic, even raising the "outlaw football" idea.
Teach me to open my piehole to complain.
It's not hammers and machetes that kill canines, it's southerners.
In my part of the South, attacking a dog like that will earn you criminal prosecution and a major fine. That's if you're lucky and the dog owner and his extended family don't get to you before the law does.
Sounds about right to me. The only thing I really don't understand about this story is why the dog owner was arrested for taking the moron's hammer away and using it on him.
Well, what ARE they then Dr. Lady? I am not joking here; as someone who has had to "euthanize" animals, I would sincerely like her recommendations. One thing is for sure, many hanging on near the poverty line in a 10% unemployment nation are not going to take said animal to get it done "officially" where they suspect they will be charged.
People in Fargo kill their pets rather than take them to a shelter?
Mostly other people's pets, actually. It's an old Scandinavian game.
Let's see, you just hit it with a truck, it only has two working legs, you're still in the truck . . . Nope, I can't think of anything.
Isn't there a short story about a dad having to put down the family dog with chloroform. He goes on and on about the dog and how hard it is to do so. But then the next day the dog is ok because the dad did not use enough and the dog just needed to sleep.
I thought you were going to say the dog was ok but the dad was dead. Different story I guess.
Let's see...sawed off shotgun or the old-timey burlap sack, big rock and body of water.
How do you do it?
Abe?
Well, that's just it. It depends on what it is. If it's a dying heifer in a field what do you do? Get the gun (my experience). Ditto a muskrat, cat, etc. caught in a trap/just gone through a grain elevator. An animal you just hit on the road in the middle of nowhere (and that is clearly not going to make it)? Unless you carry a gun in the car (many do), what do you do? Is trying to drive it maybe 20 miles to a vet while it suffers better than just doing whatever you can at the scene?
while the guy in the story is clearly nuts/an asshole, the vet doesn't really seem to offer much other than... well.... nothing.
Having just done it, it costs about $85 to euthanize an animal. I can see that being hard on a lot of people, but at least give the poor thing a chance before taking a blunt machete to it...
Or: Always keep your machete sharpened.
The American Veterinary Medical Association publishes an official guideline of acceptable, humane methods of euthanasia for a variety of species( http://www.avma.org/issues/animal_welfare/euthanasia.pdf ). Now, granted, she did not specifically get into them in the article, thinking that most folks would hopefully contact a veterinarian for advice. Frankly, I don't want just anyone to euthanize an animal.
That said, if you do see an animal suffering right there and then and you don't have access to a veterinarian (or if you can't afford one), call an animal control officer out there who can transport that animal to a veterinarian for treatment (if possible) or humane euthanasia.
I worried about the same thing and spent a lot of time driving backwoods Oregon. What do you do when you hit a deer miles from anywhere and it's not conveniently dead? No vet or animal care officer is going to come. I figured I would have to do something unspeakable with a tire iron. In my only deer-car collision, though (amongst a thousand near misses), the poor thing was instantly deceased. Lucky, I guess?
The informative if depressing guide hikergirl posted suggests the proper options are barbiturates, firearms, and bolt-guns, not things I typically haul around with me. Though it would be a handy excuse to start stocking injectable barbiturates in the glove compartment.
My friend shared a part of UC Irvine's campus with raccoons and rabbits. One day he found a mortally wounded, but not dead, rabbit outside his door. He and his roommate decided the best way to humanely end bun-bun's life was to drown it in a stewpot.
What pissed me off the most was I, being a fake doctor, actually had experience with laboratory practices for euthanasing rodents. As such, I could have offered several better options for the deed.
Euthanize a rabbit? You could try screaming at it.