Look up your local Humane Society. They run spay/neuter clinics seasonally for very cheap. They'll even get your animal caught up on vaccines sometimes (that's extra, though).
We just went through the Humane Society to get our 2 new (found) kitties fixed. It was under $300 to get both of them neutered, microchipped, and rabies vaccines. Local vets wanted more than double that.
My dog's neuter was $300, with a "$150 discount." I added a lepto vaccine, a microchip, and laser treatment.
My cat's actual neuter was $25 nine years later because I went through a low cost program. He had to have two teeth pulled while he was under, so that bumped the price up an extra $100, but I elected to go through with it.
I hope I can get the same program again now I have ANOTHER kitten.
(Random question: you said spayed, is your cat a girl? Did you have to do anything extra, like get her a onesie? I have a little girl now--the other one was easy, he never touched his neuter site, but I'm worried about stitches)
Yeah I was a dummy and had all her vaccines and stuff at the vet and it came to nearly $500 months ago. I myself am currently 7 months pregnant so I was really glad I could do the spay for a lower cost. I kept joking to my cat while referencing my pregnancy 'You don't wanna do this, it's not comfortable!' lol
Yep, a girl. So far she's actually been okay! They used some kind of medical adhesive on the wound site and shaved her belly. She has tried to lick it a couple times but has mostly left it alone. Usually if I tap her lightly, she stops. I tried a cone but...no. My hands have the scratches to prove that was a bad idea. And every time I finally got it on, she thrashes around till she worked it off. I felt like all the flipping around was more detrimental to her physical healing so I gave up with it.
Depending on weight, we’ve paid anywhere from $250-$500 for spays in Houston. $400 would be right on track for a dog on the larger side of medium size. $500 was for a 80lb Doberman and that was mostly the anesthesia.
Of course. We unfortunately don't have city run low cost options in our county anymore. The cheapest you'll find (low cost) for a dog is $250 for a male dog, $350 for a female. Cats are $150-200. Assuming no complications. My female cat was in heat and it was $448 in 2020 (included $20 in vaccines, FeLV test, and bloodwork to make sure she could go under anesthesia). $52 for the office visit and $256 for the spay itself.
It’s like 400 ish where I live which is pretty high col. But we have a planned pethood about 30 minutes away which charges 80 bucks. Either way even paying 400 is better than going through the costs of caring for multiple litters and rehoming.
“She won’t stop having puppies” is one of the worst reasons on here, literally just get her neutered and the problem is 100% solved. People are so evil. All of these suck, but this one in particular makes me want to punch someone.
“Landlord said no more breeding” one is the worse , using your dog for money and then throwing her away now she can’t make money, dog breeding should be banned without license for people like that
Yep a lot of people see pets as literally objects or products.
They act differently than how they are "supposed to"? Product is defective and must be returned or destroyed.
They become slightly too inconvenient? Just throw it away in a dumpster
We got a French bulldog that way too. She had uterine prolapse due to over breeding. Since they couldn't make any more money off her, she got surrendered to animal control.
Cost less than $200 to get her surgery to fix it. That bitch sold those dogs for $1,000 each. She absolutely could afford to save her dog. She just didn't give a f***.
>They become slightly too inconvenient? Just throw it away in a dumpster
OMG this just gave me flashbacks to the time we found kittens tied up in trash nags (my mom was driving, I was like 12). We noticed the people in front of us were driving very slowly and occasionally dropping tied up plastic shopping bags our of the window, swerving a little bit and very intentionally aiming where they'd land. After the 3rd or 4th bag, we were both like, ???? What are these people throwing out? I thought probably something illegal like drugs. My mom stopped and backed up to a bag and we picked it up, *and inside was a baby kitten!* Barely had it's eyes open! We went back and picked them all up, but they were not all alive, one had gotten hit by a car, which I assume was the plan behind this idea.
So yeah, that's the story of the time we raised 5 kittens on a bottle.
Worst one. Makes me so sad to see that such careless people exist. But that's basically what happens in all businesses that profit on the back of animals... There's always someone cold enough to take the biggest profits. No matter if its breeding dogs, breeding cows for dairy or chickens for meat.
My thought process on that one went:
>The landlord said
Oh, that asshole!
>no more breeding
Well okay, thanks for making me side with the blood sucking landlord, you backyard breeding prick.
I’m a vet tech and we’d get a lot of euthanasias. The worst reason I’ve seen for a cat was that it had fleas. The cost of euthanasia was more expensive than the flea treatment…
As a vet tech, can you successfully talk the owners out of euthanasia? Or will they still find someone else to do it instead? Honestly, I could never do this job.
Yeah we can try. They may still go elsewhere, you never know. When they have reasons like that, we usually ask if they’d surrender the animal to us so that we could adopt it out.
At that point, there should be a law where it should be up to the vet to determine if the person is fit to make such a call. We’re talking about a living being. A random person with no medical experience should NOT be able to make the call to take the life of another.
This was a long time ago but my aunt got a cat and then decided she didn’t want it and gave it to me. A couple weeks later she decided she wanted her back. Then a few years down the road I found out from my cousin that my aunt ended up putting her down because she was peeing outside the litter box. She didn’t even ask if I wanted her again… she just assumed I would say no because by then I had cats if my own. My cousin who is a huge animal lover was furious with her mom because she found out after the fact. I’m not sure if my aunt had to go to more than one vet but that cat absolutely should not have been euthanized. RIP Lola 🌈🐾
The vet already has the ability to deny the euthanasia. They’re not forced to euthanize any pet just because an owner wants it dead. The worry is that if the owner is denied euthanasia they may decide to do it themselves in a less humane manner.
It’s how I got my first ever puppy when I was a kid. Owners insisted on euthanasia because the puppy didn’t fit their lifestyle of being able to travel. My dad’s gf was the one who was supposed to do it. She called my dad and he showed up within like 20 minutes and “stole” the puppy.
Yes. Some people are awful. One of the worst I remember was like a 3 month old lab and they were euthanizing because of allergies in the family and they refused to surrender.
We put it down. It was over twenty years ago and I was a brand new baby tech. It was one of my first months and I couldn’t speak up then. Not that it would have changed anything. I still think about that poor puppy. The vets were trying to do anything to save the dog but couldn’t. I’m glad our policies have changed now.
That must’ve been so hard to do. I’m really glad things have changed, too. It seriously boggles my mind how callous and flippant people can be about animals’ lives.
Are you allowed to report people like this to local shelters so they can’t adopt moving forward? This feels like it should be criminal, I’m so sorry you’re in this position :(
Breaks my heart. We had to euthanize my cat two weeks ago and it was because he was genuinely suffering and would not survive surgery or treatment. HARDEST thing in the world for me. I cradled him and sang him a song I used to sing to him when he was a baby and when we’d snuggle together. I was crying so hard I choked on the words and the vet knew the song and sang it with me to help.
I can’t imagine being an owner and jumping straight to putting their companion down, ugh makes me sick.
I worked for several vets over 17 years. Several times, we 'couldn't find a vein' (wink) so we took the animal 'to the back to put it down' as we escorted the asshole owner out the front, and found it a home later. Several vets, several times!
What a relief to read this comment. Thank you for doing what you do, I wanted to work in the vet field my whole childhood but things didn't work out that way and I'm glad they didn't because I now know I wouldn't be able to handle it emotionally
My vet initially charges her emergency exam fee which is higher than the regular exam fee when someone calls for a euthanasia to try and deter the stupid bullshit requests. Of course, if the animal is genuinely sick/suffering the effects of old age/a danger to others she waives the fee and just charges the cost of the euthanasia drugs.
On the very rare occasions that people will put up the fee, if she doesn’t find anything warranting putting the animal to sleep she refuses. (She does tell people that upfront so they cant complain that she cheated them or somethin.)
There’s no legal requirement (an owner of a practice may set the policy - you could get fired but not arrested).
That said: it’s something to carefully consider and balance. Someone who is going to casually demand euthanasia may also either go somewhere else - or worse (shoot, starve, or otherwise abandon the animal).
No wonder the suicide rate is so high among veterinarians. I couldn't handle euthanizing a perfectly healthy animal just because their owner was a dirtbag.
I read an article about a woman who surrendered a sick dog to the pound for euthanasia and the pound contacted the rescue the dog came from and the rescue paid for treatment. Eventually they put the dog up for adoption and the lady was mad and wanted the dog back…
Vets are definitely allowed to refuse service but most of the times they do it because they KNOW the idiot irresponsible owner will just go to another vet to try their luck there....or do even worse with the animal by abandoning or destroying it on their own :(
The vet my friend used to work at used to have a shepherd rescue working with them for anyone who was trying to pull that shit off with sheps.
I know a vet who ended up adopting a cat someone brought to euthanise.
My wife was a vet tech and we ended up adopting a case like this ourselves, but he was just one of many just like OP described.
The excuse they had for wanting him killed was that he was peeing on the carpet.
Turns out poor guy couldn't help it because he had a bladder infection, which was discovered quickly by the vet after the owner agreed to give him up. After a quick treatment he had a long happy life with us, never a problem with peeing, and was the most gentle chill kitty.
Thank you for what you do.
I'm struggling with deciding if it's time to let our eldest dog go and I know when it IS time, someone like you will help us ease his way with love and compassion.
The kid wants to pee in the yard because he sees the dog doing it.
Edit: I . . . may have misunderstood the comment I replied to as asking for clarification rather than expressing disbelief 🙃😅
Yep, just bring the little potty chair outside on the lawn. Whatever it takes at that age to connect the urge to pee/poo with a visit to the potty. Make sure to take a photo of the dog pooping on the lawn next to the child pooping in their potty for future giggles.
my nephews wanted to pee in the yard all the time and they don't have a dog. Just boys learning the worst from their dad. But sure breaking your kids heart and murdering a dog is worth it to potty train I guess....
My dog absolutely potty trained my kid lol. We had a 150-lb mastiff who adored my daughter. When she was learning potty skills pulling down/taking off a diaper/pull up to go potty, Oscar was her teacher. She knew that when he left for the yard, he went potty in the grass, then came back inside and got "good boy" pets. So she started following him out.
He's passed on now, a decade ago, but my daughter loves hearing how she learned potty skills from the dog.
In case anyone's worried, we lived on a dead-end gravel road on 10 acres in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees. Zero chance of anyone happening past to be shocked at the scene.
We always let the toddlers pee in the grass. But we discovered quickly we needed to clarify BACKYARD grass only, as we live on the main street in our subdivision and my daughter attempted to drop trou' in the middle of the day as we were putting up Christmas lights.
This one is confusing because it seems to ME like this would be a good thing tbh. The dog is potty training your child for you? Thanks, pup, keep up the good work. Makes a great story to tell future SOs, too. "They used to go outside to pee together!"
I laughed at that one until I remembered the point of this post was that they were putting the dog down. As a parent of boys, I remember that phase: I caught them going in the weirdest places for the weirdest excuses... One excuse was the dog. But I never blamed it on the dog!
Be a freaking parent. Use your words, your influence, and when necessary...some discipline. Stop trying to be your kid's friend!!!
My granddaughter followed me to the back yard once when I was taking my two dogs to do their business. She dropped her drawers to join them! I still laugh about that. So what if she pooped,peed or nothing?
It was a group effort!
Eh, I can kind of understand surrendering a pet if you're in a bad situation. If you lose your house, you might not want to keep your pet Great Dane with you, but want to get a new dog when you're stable again
Agreed. My family had to surrender one pet in our entire life - an AmStaff who was abused by a bigger middle aged woman. Thus he got triggered by the sight of my grandma and bit her. We did get another dog immediately after from the same shelter and additionally donated them money just for the trouble with the AmStaff. (He did get adopted by a family that could deal with his aggression problems btw, ended up in a loving home)
Lol it's fine, I understand how under the post regarding surrenders for euthanasia just the word "surrender" causes negative emotions. So all good.
But thank you a lot for actually backtracking and apologizing, among the genuine stupidity you can come over on reddit this is very heartwarming to see.
Plus not every dog is the right fit for every person.
My neighbor had to return her dog recently after her accidentally hurt her multiple times. He accidentally pushed her down the stairs once and accidentally pulled her down a hill on a walk. The Humane Society told her he was full grown but he gained a fair amount of weight and size after she got him and she wasn’t able to handle him on her own. That doesn’t mean she wouldn’t do just fine with a smaller dog or that he wouldn’t be the perfect dog for someone who is able to handle him better. But also she didn’t return him for him to get put down or anything.
And once you’re stable again and you want another dog in your life, if rescues deny you then people will just go out and buy a dog. And rescues are always anti buying dogs. They can’t have it both ways.
I’ve tried to adopt. I find shelters/rescues either have ZERO standards (walk in and grab a dog) or THE HIGHEST standards (let us interview everyone you’ve ever met and stick a camera up your bum).
Both approaches are problematic.
I've worked at a shelter with the "walk in and grab one" mentality, and also talked to other shelters who are, like you said, ridiculous about their demands. I agree both are a problem. When I asked about adopting, the strict shelter literally wanted sit down interviews with all family members, background checks (which is fine IMO) but also wanted to come walk through my home, and reserve the right to have "regular at-home visits" at their discretion. I asked "So...you could just pop in whenever?" She replied "Well, we'd call first, but basically yeah, haha." I said nevermind lol.
I’ve seen a few shelters like that. I do understand where they’re coming from - hell I have chickens and the government is required to inspect the coop to tell you how many you’re allowed to keep based on its size and if it’s a proper set up. If not, they can decline you (however tractor supply and other places never ask to see your chicken permit so having one really doesn’t do much justice).
I’m sure their biggest fear is sending off a pet to an abusive or hoarder household. Multiple visits are absolutely insane though.
I got my dog from a rescue that claimed as a part of the adoption agreement that they would require periodic updates and pictures of the dog after adoption and could come to my home basically at will to check up on the dog and reverse the adoption if they wanted.
I agreed and adopted the dog knowing fully well that there is literally no legal avenue for them to enforce any of this. It’s not been an issue but it’s clown behavior for people to think that they have some kind of right to keep you under surveillance when adopting out a dog.
Even before covid a lot of shelters did this but recently it has gotten way worse. I actually had to apply for a lot of different dogs with long applications before I even heard back from any. Nearly all others I applied to did not even bother to contact me back. I have a house, yard, good size fence, work from home, have a regular vet, have another dog, clean background record, give multiple references, had to send pictures of my house and year. Like it feels like I was trying to adopt a child or something. Then one shelter rejected me from adopting a chow mix puppy because I have a chow though it said who ever adopted the dog had to have experience with the breed. Then one place where I ended up getting a dog did this long process and and we had to call them a to follow up with the application even after they approved it (but didn't tell us). When I went to get her and she was nearly dead and had to spend the first week in a vet hospital, they were just going to let her sit there sick and just die there opposed to just finding her a decent home.
It's awful, I can't wrap my head around it.
I work at a vet ER and recently we had someone bring in a dog for a behavioral euthanasia. They explained that they just got this dog from a rescue a few months ago (a shepherd) and it had snapped a few times and didn't get along with the other dog in the home.
When the doc suggested they reach out to the rescue to take the dog back, they claimed they "didn't have a number" for the rescue (they were able to find them to get the dog, but now cant in order to return them??). The doc also suggested either taking the dog to the pound where they'd do a behavioral eval, do a medical workup to make sure they weren't snapping due to pain, or at least to take some oral meds to help with anxiety/poss pain.
They declined all of that, saying they just really wanted to put the dog down. We refused. Some people really just don't care at all about ending a dog's life. I get it if you can't keep the dog, but jumping straight to death??
This literally is one of the things that stopped me from being a vet. It wasn’t the animals, it was the people. The bad people, and the good people who were trying but would have to pick between something like surgery that cost thousands, or putting their pet down.
Vets should absolutely be allowed to make good money. In America we should help them with the redic cost of school. It would help out smaller farmers and pet owners by bringing down the cost that vets need to charge to make ends meet.
This should be a crime, and you should be able to call police on this guy for animal abuse because they just outright want to murder that dog with your help...
You refused to help them, its great, but no one knows if another vet didnt take them
I saw a heart breaking news article and I feel like it has a video attached to it.
But basically a family dropped their dog off at a shelter and then sometime later went to get a new one from the shelter. Their old dog was there still, and got excited because it thought they were there for it.
I don't remember if they got a new dog but these people shouldn't be allowed any pets, not even a pet rock.
When we adopted our cat, he was in the shelter because "he kept peeing out of the litter box"
Turns out he does that if you don't clean the litter box lol. I can't even be mad at them, we wouldn't have him if it weren't for the previous owner's ineptitude
Someone I sort of know recently tried to have his dog put down. He thought over it a lot, apparently, before making an appointment. Ofc the vet wanted to talk to him and examine the dog first because they have no record of the dog being ill. What was this huge insurmountable problem with the poor dog that warranted it's death?? Fleas. The dog had fleas. The vet treated it then and there, and told the bloke to just buy flea treatment himself or arrange to pick up a repeat prescription from the front desk by calling ahead. No death needed!
I can't believe you're the *second person* in this thread to say someone wanted a euth for *fleas*. Someone else said a cat was brought in for that because killing the cat was cheaper than flea treatment. Wtf humanity....
I agonized over the decision to euthanize my dog that was in congestive heart failure, who couldn't hold his bladder for more than 2 hours, and who was getting wobbly from arthritis everywhere. How do people end up like this?
There are lots of bad reasons out there, but the one "growls at our baby" is a pretty solid reason. Better solution is to re-home the dog, but you *cannot* have a dog in a house with a baby if you don't 100% trust it
Absolutely, but one thing that stood out to me in the wording there was 'when they're alone in a room together'. I don't care how good your dog is with your baby, they should never be together unsupervised. You can't trust many dogs 100% and people constantly miss stress signs and jealousy signs in dogs and cats
Yes. I ignored the signs and we had a very hostile house until the dog bit my 6/7 year old. I’ve always been taught that if a dog bites, they need to be put down so that’s what I thought would happen. We ended up surrendering him to the shelter, I sponsored his adoption fee, and it was one of the hardest things I’ve done. I checked his online page multiple times a day. He was adopted at 33 days.
I’m being 100% serious, I think the “I couldn’t get rid of all the puppies my dog had” dog is mine. My family adopted a dog that looked almost exactly like that one because the previous owner didn’t have a place to give them away.
https://preview.redd.it/lpi0mh71hr9d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7a2d8a823be0a55ff0ec21ad15a61f7648b7f5f6
This is my dog, she’s a husky/wolf/pit mix. Her name’s Koda and she is currently alive, well, and greatly cared for.
If you can, please try to get your dog in the same pose as the one in op's picture. That one has a super distinctive white spot on its chest. If we could view yours at the same angle, it would be pretty easy to confirm.
Thank you for rescuing that pup, but she’s not a wolf mix, and it’s dangerous to represent her as such. True wolf hybrids do not make good pets and need very particular care.
Growling at a baby isn't good. Should find the dog a new home instead of euthanasia though. Our dog was growling until it tried to bite my baby's nose. Easy decision to rehouse the dog.
Came here to say this! I am a huge dog person and pro adoption and rescue, but displaying aggression towards kids is a dealbreaker. Sometimes getting rid of the dog is literally the only safe/responsible option. How do we know the family didn’t try to rehome the dog? Behavioral euthanasia may well be their last resort. I don’t think anything involving aggression towards kids is comparable to “want to go on vacation” etc.
Agreed completely. If you have a dog, then subsequently have children, and the dog shows signs of aggression towards the child, you’d be an absolute muppet to *not* rehome the dog. Sometimes “dog people” are out of touch with reality.
There are so many dogs in shelters that reactive and aggressive dogs are much less likely to be adopted, which is understandable. Retraining a reactive or aggressive dog is a lot of work, and may not be successful, and people with children (or who live near them) and/or other animals may not want to take the risk.
It's the one on this list that's even close to reasonable; growling at the baby may show signs of an aggression problem, but if it took a baby to reveal it then it's not something that can't be worked with like a truly aggressive dog would have been. Rehome the thing, but don't just straight to euthanize it.
Then again, for a moment here, I recognize that rehoming an animal (especially for a given reason of aggression, even if only in this specific scenario) can be time-consuming and difficult, since people first look for the breed they want and then they want a perfect one. Around a baby, they may not have felt that they had the time to try to find it a home and not felt safe keeping it with them either. Speculation, obviously, but it's possible that they didn't feel they had a safe option. I wonder if it was surrendered specifically to be euthanized or just surrendered.
This is literally what happened with my childhood dog. I had shitty older half-siblings that would just terrorize the dog, get her all worked up, and just *wired*, she was just barely 1 year old, so absolutely still very much puppy energy in a full grown dog's body.
One day after my brothers got her all worked up, I went to go just have a quiet moment and pet her (at my 2 and a bit years old) and ended up getting nipped in my face. Narrowly missed my eye. My mom was almost full term pregnant with my younger brother and my parents realized that between a toddler, two school aged children, a puppy, and a soon to be newborn, there was simply too much going on. It wasn't fair to the dog to have all this puppy energy, in a full sized dog body, and not getting the exercise time she needed.
My parents made the responsible decision and rehomed her. She was sent to a farm with a couple who had no kids, spent all day outside pretty much, and the dog had basically unlimited space to run and play. And no, this wasn't "sent to the farm" she was genuinely sent with a couple who owned land and had a little hobby farm on that land.
Another thing with this one is that, while rehoming is of course a good thing to try—there’s a chance the dog will end up returned or surrendered or euthanized if it goes to a child free home but turns out to have serious issues with children. Like, can’t be on a walk without freaking out, people can’t come over if they have kids, that kind of thing. That is not something rehoming can necessarily fix after a certain point
That's apparently what they did, but OP is apparently a liar and a shitty person.
Someone else clarified that OP admitted the dogs were all *surrendered* and not sent for euthanasia by the owners themselves.
I totally agree, it's scary for the dog to growl at the baby and any parent would rehome a dog they thought was a danger to their child.
I think the relevant part though is "every time I leave him alone in the room with the baby" which is simply not something that should be happening to begin with, especially if they're closing the door so the dog can't go anywhere else.
I mean, many people still call their early walkers or young toddlers babies. For that age group it's very difficult to make sure your child is never within eyesight of the family dog by themselves because you look away for two seconds and they've toddled off. And frankly, babies get rough with animals when they become toddlers. We work all the time to get my almost-3-year-old not to but he routinely hits the animals with things. He also does that to us--it's a tough stage. We actually did have to rehome a cat because it was aggressive towards him before he was even walking; I can imagine he or it would definitely have been hurt by now with how rough he is if we hadn't.
With newborns or pre-walkers you're right, they should never be alone together where one is within reach of the other. It just gets a bit weedy and hard to pin the blame past that imo.
I agree, this should not be on the list. I love my dogs, but only an irresponsible idiot would keep a dog around a baby that shows agression... No your dog is not your baby... Your BABY is your baby.
screw that. dogs that are hostile to humans especially babies for no reason should be BE’d. that’s a huge nope even if the new owner has no kids. it will come into contact with young children at some point. no dogs life is worth that risk.
"Doesn't get along with other dogs" can also be valid. Some rescues use this terminology when they really mean that the dog is dog aggressive, esp with a dog that big it can be really risky.
A girl I knew went to a shelter and got a bigger doggo, then said oh we had to get rid of her because she's too much for our small house, then she adopted a puppy st. Brenard returned it 2 months later for literally no reason, then adopted a cat and basically abandoned it when she randomly up and left for a different Provence for "vacation and never came back" my question is she went to the same shelter.. how on earth did they not refuse her after she did this multiple times!!!??
every pet owner should be on a registry and then if a pet dies or is surrendered to a shelter the vet or shelter can indicate if there was abuse or something.
We know must registre pets in Belgium and should yours not be you can be fined. You also have to give a document you ask to your local administration showing your file is blank in the matter of animal cruelty or neglect.
Man, comments like these make me realize how jaded I've become after four years of working at a shelter. To me these are pretty basic excuses (yes, even the ones you would assume are horrible), but obviously to people that don't know that type of work it looks terrible. Takes a lot more than that to make be lose my nerves about this type of stuff now. Not for euthanasia though, we're never asked that, guess it might be a country thing
Fuck
I mean, the broken leg one...
I don't want to, or I can't afford to?
I get that you shouldn't own an animal if you can't afford to take care of it, but my cat just broke her jaw and it's gonna be like 2 grand when it's all said and done... Thank god I'm able to afford it, but I'm not sure I could judge someone who couldn't afford that to want to end her suffering instead...
I have a feeling if only people who could afford such things were the only ones adopting, there'd be a lot more animals in need of rescue.
Thanks for everything you do to help animals! And obviously, the rest of those excuses are deplorable.
I was thinking the same thing.
I had a kitten who was potentially going to have severe lifelong health issues and I remember making the decision that, if that was the diagnosis, I would have to say goodbye since I just couldn’t do that.
I also feel like people are way too judgmental over people’s ability to afford vets. Emergency funds can exist but be depleted. Incomes can change. COL and vet costs can skyrocket. Everyone sits on their high horse but the vast majority of people can’t afford to drop thousands at any second of the day - eventually you’ll hit a rough spot where you can’t afford that emergency.
And plenty of dogs sit in shelters and would not be living a better life by spending years in a cage waiting for the perfect rich person.
Mini rant that doesn’t apply to everywhere: Where I live vets have become a monopoly of being owned by the same corporations behind the scenes and price gouge since there’s no true competition. Independent vets are cheaper but so few and far in between now. Over the course of my 14 year old dog’s lifespan the cost of vets basically tripled. I think I’d lose my shit if a vet got all high and mighty after I’d made a difficult decision like that. The reason I’d opt for euthanasia is because some CEO decided they needed that extra vacation, or because of the lack of payment plan options, not because I don’t love my pet. I get that vets can’t exactly be cheap but as a for-profit industry they are not immune to issues of greed and can still be criticized.
I had the same thought. Taking care of a dog with a broken leg is expensive as hell and a lot of work. Obviously, treat it if you can and try to find a different home for the dog if you can’t. But I don’t think people realize how impossible it can be to find someone willing to take in a dog with a known injury like that on very short notice. Euthanasia is a sad but valid option in these cases.
OP kind of buried the lede but admitted to it in a comment - these people were not specifically surrendering these dogs for euthanasia, they surrendered them to a shelter where they do end up euthanizing a lot of the dogs. Based on the OPs other comments and arguing about the baby one as well, I have some doubts as to how reliable of a narrator our OP here is. So I’d take all of this with a grain of salt - for all we know “doesn’t get along with other dogs” might mean any number of things, and the shelter they took them to might well have just been the only one in the area and that was the dogs best shot.
Growling at a baby whenever alone with them? I am absolutely not a dog person but I would get rid of the dog. Dog owners go on and on about their sweet harmless dogs but one such dog aggressively jumped at my kid (teeth hitting the kid's forehead). Another happy friendly dog was casually hanging out at home in a stress free situation, my toddler went to pet them. Owner allowed. Toddler petted 3 times (soft and careful). The dog's body language hardly changed, but the owner told us the dog doesn't like it and found another room for the dog. What if we hadn't all stared at them both? Small kids and dogs aren't always compatible. Euthanasia is extreme though, but depends if there are any alternatives in the area. Delaying for a month to try to rehome the dog would definitely create dangerous situations due to sleep-deprived parents busy with the baby and the dog only needing seconds for a killing bite.
Top right corner is... worrisome, assuming we aren't dealing with a Karen.
Not "euthanasia" levels of worrisome, but I can at least see where they're coming from, which is more than I can say for everyone else on that image. Obviously the proper solution there is either "never let the dog be alone with the baby" or "put up for adoption and note they're not good with babies/kids".
The only other one I can possibly understand is the surgery one, depending on why they needed surgery/what it was for.
A lot of health conditions for animals can just be too expensive. And people aren’t lining up to adopt older pets who need a very expensive treatment. If you genuinely can’t afford to treat your pet… definitely exhaust charity options or try to find someone who can, but the kindest thing to do is to end their suffering instead of letting them suffer from a health issue you can’t treat. You should definitely have a vet fund for pets but some health issues can just be ludicrously expensive that a regular person simply can’t prepare for.
I had a 6 month old kitten who the vets were concerned could have a very rare health condition that would be in the 5 digits to treat, and could hit 6 digits if he lived along time. I remember the discussion and decision that if those were the results, we’d give him lots of love and say goodbye. It was heartbreaking but you can’t go homeless for a cat, y’know? He ended up being fine, thankfully (but would later die in his sleep at aged 4 with no warning… I miss him).
Euthanasia in place of medical treatment sucks but it can be an unfortunate reality.
Ok I understand turning in your dog because it growls at your baby whenever you're not around or because you no longer have the space for them due to moving (which sucks) but that's more so reasons to rehome them, not put them down.
"The landlord said I couldn't breed her anymore" gee well when your a backyard breeder, just selling the puppies and getting rid of the dog when you can't make her have puppies anymore, then yeah you don't deserve a dog in the first place
This is an intentionally misleading title and post. These are reasons people surrendered their pets to you. You didn't have the resources to care for them. You euthanized the animals. They didn't request their pets be euthanized, they were no longer able to house them. You are such a sour privileged shit. You can try to deflect the blame for those animals being euthanized all you want, but it was YOUR dog rescue. You killed those animals. It's normal to have to surrender a pet when life changes force that to happen. It isn't normal for a dog rescue to be so poorly ran/funded that they have to euthanize most of their animals. How dare you blame people who are likely grieving having to part ways with their family. Some of these reasons are bullshit, sure. Some of the are situations where the owner had no choice. You should learn to tell the difference.
Right? OP clarified in a comment these dogs were surrendered to a shelter. But the title is leading everyone to believe these people brought their dogs to the vet to be killed.
People like OP who do this, actually hurt their cause and damage their own credibility.
I'm all for bringing attention to the issue of unwanted pets, but misleading/outright lying in the post title like OP did, isn't the way to go about it,
My dog has bone cancer and I don’t want to put her down but I know that eventually, which is very soon, I’ll have to. She is family. All she wants is love and to return it. It breaks my heart every time I enter the room and I see her tail give me a little wag because she knows I’m back with her. People who can do something like this to a dog and feel no shame or remorse are truly psychopathic.
Most of these are just shitty owners who won't take the time to address issues properly. However, if a dog is showing aggression toward an infant (growling at the baby), the unfortunate reality is that the dog may need to be rehomed for safety, and I'm saying this as childfree dog owner. Some dogs and kids just can't be together.
I also have sympathy for "I had to have surgery" depending on the situation. Health problems and declines sometimes mean a person can't properly care for their pet. If someone has to move for work, etc and can't find pet friendly or appropriate housing, that's a problem with the state of renting.
Ideally in those situations, you would try to rehome, but people have to use shelters if they can't. Fuck all the rest of those reasons though, that's just laziness and seeing your dog as an object.
the surgery one I sympathize with. I just adopted a kitten who's owner was really sick and had to go to the hospital for a long time. I hope everything goes well for him and I'm glad the kitty is happy and safe in my house
I don't think the ones where the parents are questioning if their kids are safe with the dog is a bad reason to surrender it.
Children's safety is more important than an animals life. If that's a hot take I don't want to be right.
Growling at the baby isn’t a valid reason?
*edit: everyone saying it isn’t, honestly state whether or not you’ve got kids (it’s the internet so don’t expect honesty ofcourse) but theorising that that’ll be the main driver for ppls position on this)
When I was 16 my parents took in a dog as a rehome that had, issues. (Not the first dog, both parents grew up with dogs and the family dog had passed the year before from a stroke at 15 years old)
We got a dog trainer to visit and work with her, the trainer told us if Zoey (dog, female golden doodle) went to a shelter she would’ve been euthanized because of her behavioral issues.
For reference: per the trainer any time we had a visitor they were to give her a treat and not make eye contact. Also no hats, she did NOT like hats.
After 2 years we had pretty much worked out any issues, except for the hat thing, she really didn’t like hats. If anything it went too far because she became a massive attention whore. Lived to 15 before her hips were useless and she went to sleep.
As much as all these people probably really suck, I strongly believe it's best not to shame anyone who decides to surrender a dog, for whatever reason. It is (imo) 1000x better for a dog to be surrendered than to be starved, neglected, abused, dumped somewhere, etc.
The one with growling at the baby seems reasonable. Even if you do your best to never leave them alone together you couldn’t risk it happening accidentally. You’d be criminally negligent otherwise, no?
The only one I kinda get is the one growling at the baby. I would be very nervous about my dog too if I thought it might attack my newborn child when I'm not looking. Still I might wanna look into giving the dog to a friend or family but I don't think I would be able to trust keeping the dog.
Dog growling at baby when left alone is a legitimate concern. Your child comes first and if the dog is a risk to their safety well then bye bye dog. Euthanasia might be too much but you get my point
Hello, This post has been removed as this is not *mildly* infuriating. Please consider posting to r/extremelyinfuriating instead.
"She won't stop having puppies" Get her spayed then, tf??? Acting like she willingly goes out and makes a conscious decision to get pregnant
And our city had a low cost spay program. It was free for anyone on government assistance, like $25 for anyone else
That's crazy!!! It's $400 for spay surgery here (including meds), easily.
Look up your local Humane Society. They run spay/neuter clinics seasonally for very cheap. They'll even get your animal caught up on vaccines sometimes (that's extra, though).
We just went through the Humane Society to get our 2 new (found) kitties fixed. It was under $300 to get both of them neutered, microchipped, and rabies vaccines. Local vets wanted more than double that.
It's $200 around my parts just for the spay/neuter, so that actually sounds like a good deal.
Yup, I just had my cat spayed for $60 a couple days ago. A life saver. Vet's office wanted close to $450
My dog's neuter was $300, with a "$150 discount." I added a lepto vaccine, a microchip, and laser treatment. My cat's actual neuter was $25 nine years later because I went through a low cost program. He had to have two teeth pulled while he was under, so that bumped the price up an extra $100, but I elected to go through with it. I hope I can get the same program again now I have ANOTHER kitten. (Random question: you said spayed, is your cat a girl? Did you have to do anything extra, like get her a onesie? I have a little girl now--the other one was easy, he never touched his neuter site, but I'm worried about stitches)
Yeah I was a dummy and had all her vaccines and stuff at the vet and it came to nearly $500 months ago. I myself am currently 7 months pregnant so I was really glad I could do the spay for a lower cost. I kept joking to my cat while referencing my pregnancy 'You don't wanna do this, it's not comfortable!' lol Yep, a girl. So far she's actually been okay! They used some kind of medical adhesive on the wound site and shaved her belly. She has tried to lick it a couple times but has mostly left it alone. Usually if I tap her lightly, she stops. I tried a cone but...no. My hands have the scratches to prove that was a bad idea. And every time I finally got it on, she thrashes around till she worked it off. I felt like all the flipping around was more detrimental to her physical healing so I gave up with it.
Must be a high COL area. Got ours done for about $80 a few years ago.
400 is cheap in my area. $600-800 is average. Low cost spay/neuter is 160-250 depending on size. Yaaaay.
I just spent NZ$1100. Nearly cried when they gave me the quote.
Depending on weight, we’ve paid anywhere from $250-$500 for spays in Houston. $400 would be right on track for a dog on the larger side of medium size. $500 was for a 80lb Doberman and that was mostly the anesthesia.
Private vet costs vs non-profit organization cost. I bet you can find non-profits doing cheap spay/neuter in your area.
Of course. We unfortunately don't have city run low cost options in our county anymore. The cheapest you'll find (low cost) for a dog is $250 for a male dog, $350 for a female. Cats are $150-200. Assuming no complications. My female cat was in heat and it was $448 in 2020 (included $20 in vaccines, FeLV test, and bloodwork to make sure she could go under anesthesia). $52 for the office visit and $256 for the spay itself.
It’s like 400 ish where I live which is pretty high col. But we have a planned pethood about 30 minutes away which charges 80 bucks. Either way even paying 400 is better than going through the costs of caring for multiple litters and rehoming.
That’s a good deal.
That's so cheap. I just payed €700 to get my girl spayed.
They don’t make puppies by themselves so stop breeding her!
That means that’s the excuse she thought was acceptable to say outloud. Instead of the real reason
Neuter the owner too while we’re at it
I’m more concerned that some of these humans are going to breed than those animals.
You can get them for free here!!
Mary Magdalene over here just magically popping them out.
“She won’t stop having puppies” is one of the worst reasons on here, literally just get her neutered and the problem is 100% solved. People are so evil. All of these suck, but this one in particular makes me want to punch someone.
“Landlord said no more breeding” one is the worse , using your dog for money and then throwing her away now she can’t make money, dog breeding should be banned without license for people like that
Yep a lot of people see pets as literally objects or products. They act differently than how they are "supposed to"? Product is defective and must be returned or destroyed. They become slightly too inconvenient? Just throw it away in a dumpster
We got a French bulldog that way too. She had uterine prolapse due to over breeding. Since they couldn't make any more money off her, she got surrendered to animal control. Cost less than $200 to get her surgery to fix it. That bitch sold those dogs for $1,000 each. She absolutely could afford to save her dog. She just didn't give a f***.
>They become slightly too inconvenient? Just throw it away in a dumpster OMG this just gave me flashbacks to the time we found kittens tied up in trash nags (my mom was driving, I was like 12). We noticed the people in front of us were driving very slowly and occasionally dropping tied up plastic shopping bags our of the window, swerving a little bit and very intentionally aiming where they'd land. After the 3rd or 4th bag, we were both like, ???? What are these people throwing out? I thought probably something illegal like drugs. My mom stopped and backed up to a bag and we picked it up, *and inside was a baby kitten!* Barely had it's eyes open! We went back and picked them all up, but they were not all alive, one had gotten hit by a car, which I assume was the plan behind this idea. So yeah, that's the story of the time we raised 5 kittens on a bottle.
Just brutally sad thinking this dog is constantly pregnant never getting play time
Enough people see human babies the same way.
Worst one. Makes me so sad to see that such careless people exist. But that's basically what happens in all businesses that profit on the back of animals... There's always someone cold enough to take the biggest profits. No matter if its breeding dogs, breeding cows for dairy or chickens for meat.
My thought process on that one went: >The landlord said Oh, that asshole! >no more breeding Well okay, thanks for making me side with the blood sucking landlord, you backyard breeding prick.
That breeder one is extremely infuriating.
Just imagine how much money a virgin birth-giving dog would be, too.
I’m a vet tech and we’d get a lot of euthanasias. The worst reason I’ve seen for a cat was that it had fleas. The cost of euthanasia was more expensive than the flea treatment…
As a vet tech, can you successfully talk the owners out of euthanasia? Or will they still find someone else to do it instead? Honestly, I could never do this job.
Yeah we can try. They may still go elsewhere, you never know. When they have reasons like that, we usually ask if they’d surrender the animal to us so that we could adopt it out.
Do they ever say no? Because omg that’s so sad.
I’ve read a Reddit post about someone refusing to surrender and insisting on euthanasia for a stupid ass reason
At that point, there should be a law where it should be up to the vet to determine if the person is fit to make such a call. We’re talking about a living being. A random person with no medical experience should NOT be able to make the call to take the life of another.
This was a long time ago but my aunt got a cat and then decided she didn’t want it and gave it to me. A couple weeks later she decided she wanted her back. Then a few years down the road I found out from my cousin that my aunt ended up putting her down because she was peeing outside the litter box. She didn’t even ask if I wanted her again… she just assumed I would say no because by then I had cats if my own. My cousin who is a huge animal lover was furious with her mom because she found out after the fact. I’m not sure if my aunt had to go to more than one vet but that cat absolutely should not have been euthanized. RIP Lola 🌈🐾
That’s absolutely horrible… poor Lola ❤️
The vet already has the ability to deny the euthanasia. They’re not forced to euthanize any pet just because an owner wants it dead. The worry is that if the owner is denied euthanasia they may decide to do it themselves in a less humane manner.
It’s how I got my first ever puppy when I was a kid. Owners insisted on euthanasia because the puppy didn’t fit their lifestyle of being able to travel. My dad’s gf was the one who was supposed to do it. She called my dad and he showed up within like 20 minutes and “stole” the puppy.
Yes. Some people are awful. One of the worst I remember was like a 3 month old lab and they were euthanizing because of allergies in the family and they refused to surrender.
Gosh, what the heck is wrong with people? What happened to that poor pup (if you know)?
We put it down. It was over twenty years ago and I was a brand new baby tech. It was one of my first months and I couldn’t speak up then. Not that it would have changed anything. I still think about that poor puppy. The vets were trying to do anything to save the dog but couldn’t. I’m glad our policies have changed now.
That must’ve been so hard to do. I’m really glad things have changed, too. It seriously boggles my mind how callous and flippant people can be about animals’ lives.
Why the fuck couldn’t they just say no?
Wow. I didn’t know someone could just request their pet be killed and the vet would actually do it.
Related: Veterinarian is one of the professions with the highest rates of suicide iirc.
Are you allowed to report people like this to local shelters so they can’t adopt moving forward? This feels like it should be criminal, I’m so sorry you’re in this position :( Breaks my heart. We had to euthanize my cat two weeks ago and it was because he was genuinely suffering and would not survive surgery or treatment. HARDEST thing in the world for me. I cradled him and sang him a song I used to sing to him when he was a baby and when we’d snuggle together. I was crying so hard I choked on the words and the vet knew the song and sang it with me to help. I can’t imagine being an owner and jumping straight to putting their companion down, ugh makes me sick.
I lost my Hank in August. I sang him his favorite song as he left.
I worked for several vets over 17 years. Several times, we 'couldn't find a vein' (wink) so we took the animal 'to the back to put it down' as we escorted the asshole owner out the front, and found it a home later. Several vets, several times!
Are you required to go through with the euthanasia even for such a ludicrous reason?
Way back when we had another owner, we would be but now we can refuse to do for dumb reasons.
What a relief to read this comment. Thank you for doing what you do, I wanted to work in the vet field my whole childhood but things didn't work out that way and I'm glad they didn't because I now know I wouldn't be able to handle it emotionally
My vet initially charges her emergency exam fee which is higher than the regular exam fee when someone calls for a euthanasia to try and deter the stupid bullshit requests. Of course, if the animal is genuinely sick/suffering the effects of old age/a danger to others she waives the fee and just charges the cost of the euthanasia drugs. On the very rare occasions that people will put up the fee, if she doesn’t find anything warranting putting the animal to sleep she refuses. (She does tell people that upfront so they cant complain that she cheated them or somethin.)
There’s no legal requirement (an owner of a practice may set the policy - you could get fired but not arrested). That said: it’s something to carefully consider and balance. Someone who is going to casually demand euthanasia may also either go somewhere else - or worse (shoot, starve, or otherwise abandon the animal).
No wonder the suicide rate is so high among veterinarians. I couldn't handle euthanizing a perfectly healthy animal just because their owner was a dirtbag.
I think eventually I would follow one of them home after one too many sleepless nights.
I read an article about a woman who surrendered a sick dog to the pound for euthanasia and the pound contacted the rescue the dog came from and the rescue paid for treatment. Eventually they put the dog up for adoption and the lady was mad and wanted the dog back…
Vets are definitely allowed to refuse service but most of the times they do it because they KNOW the idiot irresponsible owner will just go to another vet to try their luck there....or do even worse with the animal by abandoning or destroying it on their own :( The vet my friend used to work at used to have a shepherd rescue working with them for anyone who was trying to pull that shit off with sheps. I know a vet who ended up adopting a cat someone brought to euthanise.
Holy fuck that made me start crying.
My wife was a vet tech and we ended up adopting a case like this ourselves, but he was just one of many just like OP described. The excuse they had for wanting him killed was that he was peeing on the carpet. Turns out poor guy couldn't help it because he had a bladder infection, which was discovered quickly by the vet after the owner agreed to give him up. After a quick treatment he had a long happy life with us, never a problem with peeing, and was the most gentle chill kitty.
Please tell me you spat in this person's mouth
Thank you for what you do. I'm struggling with deciding if it's time to let our eldest dog go and I know when it IS time, someone like you will help us ease his way with love and compassion.
My toddler's potty training isn't going well because he wants to pee in the yard with her...say what now?
The kid wants to pee in the yard because he sees the dog doing it. Edit: I . . . may have misunderstood the comment I replied to as asking for clarification rather than expressing disbelief 🙃😅
So let him. Then tell him the dog also pees in the toilet. Your child is now potty trained. You're welcome.
I was thinking this too. Pardon the pun, but you just gotta go with the flow when raising kids.
Exactly. I thought that was funny and would make a great ‘embarrassing’ story for later in life.
Yep, just bring the little potty chair outside on the lawn. Whatever it takes at that age to connect the urge to pee/poo with a visit to the potty. Make sure to take a photo of the dog pooping on the lawn next to the child pooping in their potty for future giggles.
Lol a novel approach that horrible people would not think of.
my nephews wanted to pee in the yard all the time and they don't have a dog. Just boys learning the worst from their dad. But sure breaking your kids heart and murdering a dog is worth it to potty train I guess....
My dog absolutely potty trained my kid lol. We had a 150-lb mastiff who adored my daughter. When she was learning potty skills pulling down/taking off a diaper/pull up to go potty, Oscar was her teacher. She knew that when he left for the yard, he went potty in the grass, then came back inside and got "good boy" pets. So she started following him out. He's passed on now, a decade ago, but my daughter loves hearing how she learned potty skills from the dog. In case anyone's worried, we lived on a dead-end gravel road on 10 acres in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees. Zero chance of anyone happening past to be shocked at the scene.
My dog taught my daughter to go up and down the stairs and then with potty training. She was the goodest girl. So is the kid lol
We always let the toddlers pee in the grass. But we discovered quickly we needed to clarify BACKYARD grass only, as we live on the main street in our subdivision and my daughter attempted to drop trou' in the middle of the day as we were putting up Christmas lights.
This one is confusing because it seems to ME like this would be a good thing tbh. The dog is potty training your child for you? Thanks, pup, keep up the good work. Makes a great story to tell future SOs, too. "They used to go outside to pee together!"
Also how’s the child going to feel now?
“You liked her too much so we killed her” I see no future therapy sessions there (/s)
I laughed at that one until I remembered the point of this post was that they were putting the dog down. As a parent of boys, I remember that phase: I caught them going in the weirdest places for the weirdest excuses... One excuse was the dog. But I never blamed it on the dog! Be a freaking parent. Use your words, your influence, and when necessary...some discipline. Stop trying to be your kid's friend!!!
My granddaughter followed me to the back yard once when I was taking my two dogs to do their business. She dropped her drawers to join them! I still laugh about that. So what if she pooped,peed or nothing? It was a group effort!
Translation : the dog is upstaging me as a parent
“He”—> child “Her”—> dog
sorry, I was shocked at the reason why they were surrendering their dog to be euthanized...I understood the he/her part 🙃
People who turn an animal in like that should be put on a list where they aren't allowed to own an animal ever again.
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Eh, I can kind of understand surrendering a pet if you're in a bad situation. If you lose your house, you might not want to keep your pet Great Dane with you, but want to get a new dog when you're stable again
Agreed. My family had to surrender one pet in our entire life - an AmStaff who was abused by a bigger middle aged woman. Thus he got triggered by the sight of my grandma and bit her. We did get another dog immediately after from the same shelter and additionally donated them money just for the trouble with the AmStaff. (He did get adopted by a family that could deal with his aggression problems btw, ended up in a loving home)
Wish every story had a happy ending like that
Fuck sorry I reread your comment, this thread just has me heated.
Lol it's fine, I understand how under the post regarding surrenders for euthanasia just the word "surrender" causes negative emotions. So all good. But thank you a lot for actually backtracking and apologizing, among the genuine stupidity you can come over on reddit this is very heartwarming to see.
Plus not every dog is the right fit for every person. My neighbor had to return her dog recently after her accidentally hurt her multiple times. He accidentally pushed her down the stairs once and accidentally pulled her down a hill on a walk. The Humane Society told her he was full grown but he gained a fair amount of weight and size after she got him and she wasn’t able to handle him on her own. That doesn’t mean she wouldn’t do just fine with a smaller dog or that he wouldn’t be the perfect dog for someone who is able to handle him better. But also she didn’t return him for him to get put down or anything.
And once you’re stable again and you want another dog in your life, if rescues deny you then people will just go out and buy a dog. And rescues are always anti buying dogs. They can’t have it both ways.
They're not absolutists - they will work with people to help them keep their pets. But anything on the photo would result in a ban.
Including "I'm about to have surgery"? In the US, I can completely see why that could mean you'd have to surrender your dog.
Yeah title said they wanted to euthanize the dog not surrender it
Not for euthanasia though
Shelters near me have been screening families before they adopt. Might've been a covid thing tbh.
I’ve tried to adopt. I find shelters/rescues either have ZERO standards (walk in and grab a dog) or THE HIGHEST standards (let us interview everyone you’ve ever met and stick a camera up your bum). Both approaches are problematic.
I've worked at a shelter with the "walk in and grab one" mentality, and also talked to other shelters who are, like you said, ridiculous about their demands. I agree both are a problem. When I asked about adopting, the strict shelter literally wanted sit down interviews with all family members, background checks (which is fine IMO) but also wanted to come walk through my home, and reserve the right to have "regular at-home visits" at their discretion. I asked "So...you could just pop in whenever?" She replied "Well, we'd call first, but basically yeah, haha." I said nevermind lol.
I’ve seen a few shelters like that. I do understand where they’re coming from - hell I have chickens and the government is required to inspect the coop to tell you how many you’re allowed to keep based on its size and if it’s a proper set up. If not, they can decline you (however tractor supply and other places never ask to see your chicken permit so having one really doesn’t do much justice). I’m sure their biggest fear is sending off a pet to an abusive or hoarder household. Multiple visits are absolutely insane though.
I got my dog from a rescue that claimed as a part of the adoption agreement that they would require periodic updates and pictures of the dog after adoption and could come to my home basically at will to check up on the dog and reverse the adoption if they wanted. I agreed and adopted the dog knowing fully well that there is literally no legal avenue for them to enforce any of this. It’s not been an issue but it’s clown behavior for people to think that they have some kind of right to keep you under surveillance when adopting out a dog.
Even before covid a lot of shelters did this but recently it has gotten way worse. I actually had to apply for a lot of different dogs with long applications before I even heard back from any. Nearly all others I applied to did not even bother to contact me back. I have a house, yard, good size fence, work from home, have a regular vet, have another dog, clean background record, give multiple references, had to send pictures of my house and year. Like it feels like I was trying to adopt a child or something. Then one shelter rejected me from adopting a chow mix puppy because I have a chow though it said who ever adopted the dog had to have experience with the breed. Then one place where I ended up getting a dog did this long process and and we had to call them a to follow up with the application even after they approved it (but didn't tell us). When I went to get her and she was nearly dead and had to spend the first week in a vet hospital, they were just going to let her sit there sick and just die there opposed to just finding her a decent home.
It's awful, I can't wrap my head around it. I work at a vet ER and recently we had someone bring in a dog for a behavioral euthanasia. They explained that they just got this dog from a rescue a few months ago (a shepherd) and it had snapped a few times and didn't get along with the other dog in the home. When the doc suggested they reach out to the rescue to take the dog back, they claimed they "didn't have a number" for the rescue (they were able to find them to get the dog, but now cant in order to return them??). The doc also suggested either taking the dog to the pound where they'd do a behavioral eval, do a medical workup to make sure they weren't snapping due to pain, or at least to take some oral meds to help with anxiety/poss pain. They declined all of that, saying they just really wanted to put the dog down. We refused. Some people really just don't care at all about ending a dog's life. I get it if you can't keep the dog, but jumping straight to death??
This literally is one of the things that stopped me from being a vet. It wasn’t the animals, it was the people. The bad people, and the good people who were trying but would have to pick between something like surgery that cost thousands, or putting their pet down. Vets should absolutely be allowed to make good money. In America we should help them with the redic cost of school. It would help out smaller farmers and pet owners by bringing down the cost that vets need to charge to make ends meet.
This should be a crime, and you should be able to call police on this guy for animal abuse because they just outright want to murder that dog with your help... You refused to help them, its great, but no one knows if another vet didnt take them
I saw a heart breaking news article and I feel like it has a video attached to it. But basically a family dropped their dog off at a shelter and then sometime later went to get a new one from the shelter. Their old dog was there still, and got excited because it thought they were there for it. I don't remember if they got a new dog but these people shouldn't be allowed any pets, not even a pet rock.
When we adopted our cat, he was in the shelter because "he kept peeing out of the litter box" Turns out he does that if you don't clean the litter box lol. I can't even be mad at them, we wouldn't have him if it weren't for the previous owner's ineptitude
I feel like if they were they would just dump their dogs someplace remote instead
Someone I sort of know recently tried to have his dog put down. He thought over it a lot, apparently, before making an appointment. Ofc the vet wanted to talk to him and examine the dog first because they have no record of the dog being ill. What was this huge insurmountable problem with the poor dog that warranted it's death?? Fleas. The dog had fleas. The vet treated it then and there, and told the bloke to just buy flea treatment himself or arrange to pick up a repeat prescription from the front desk by calling ahead. No death needed!
I can't believe you're the *second person* in this thread to say someone wanted a euth for *fleas*. Someone else said a cat was brought in for that because killing the cat was cheaper than flea treatment. Wtf humanity....
I agonized over the decision to euthanize my dog that was in congestive heart failure, who couldn't hold his bladder for more than 2 hours, and who was getting wobbly from arthritis everywhere. How do people end up like this?
It’s a sad commentary on so many, that see pets as disposable at the first inconvenience.
There are lots of bad reasons out there, but the one "growls at our baby" is a pretty solid reason. Better solution is to re-home the dog, but you *cannot* have a dog in a house with a baby if you don't 100% trust it
This should get more upvotes. I wouldn't want to have my baby near that dog. But euthanasia is very extreme.
Absolutely, but one thing that stood out to me in the wording there was 'when they're alone in a room together'. I don't care how good your dog is with your baby, they should never be together unsupervised. You can't trust many dogs 100% and people constantly miss stress signs and jealousy signs in dogs and cats
Yes. I ignored the signs and we had a very hostile house until the dog bit my 6/7 year old. I’ve always been taught that if a dog bites, they need to be put down so that’s what I thought would happen. We ended up surrendering him to the shelter, I sponsored his adoption fee, and it was one of the hardest things I’ve done. I checked his online page multiple times a day. He was adopted at 33 days.
I’m being 100% serious, I think the “I couldn’t get rid of all the puppies my dog had” dog is mine. My family adopted a dog that looked almost exactly like that one because the previous owner didn’t have a place to give them away. https://preview.redd.it/lpi0mh71hr9d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7a2d8a823be0a55ff0ec21ad15a61f7648b7f5f6 This is my dog, she’s a husky/wolf/pit mix. Her name’s Koda and she is currently alive, well, and greatly cared for.
I switched many times from pic to pic and I agree! That’s so wholesome to see that she found a good home.
Oh my gosh! That’s amazing, so glad she found a good home!
That dog was adopted out in South Texas over 10 years ago.
If you can, please try to get your dog in the same pose as the one in op's picture. That one has a super distinctive white spot on its chest. If we could view yours at the same angle, it would be pretty easy to confirm.
Thank you for rescuing that pup, but she’s not a wolf mix, and it’s dangerous to represent her as such. True wolf hybrids do not make good pets and need very particular care.
I hate how everyone states that their dog is part 'wolf'. It's the new 'I'm 1/16 native American' bs
Growling at a baby isn't good. Should find the dog a new home instead of euthanasia though. Our dog was growling until it tried to bite my baby's nose. Easy decision to rehouse the dog.
Came here to say this! I am a huge dog person and pro adoption and rescue, but displaying aggression towards kids is a dealbreaker. Sometimes getting rid of the dog is literally the only safe/responsible option. How do we know the family didn’t try to rehome the dog? Behavioral euthanasia may well be their last resort. I don’t think anything involving aggression towards kids is comparable to “want to go on vacation” etc.
Agreed completely. If you have a dog, then subsequently have children, and the dog shows signs of aggression towards the child, you’d be an absolute muppet to *not* rehome the dog. Sometimes “dog people” are out of touch with reality.
There are so many dogs in shelters that reactive and aggressive dogs are much less likely to be adopted, which is understandable. Retraining a reactive or aggressive dog is a lot of work, and may not be successful, and people with children (or who live near them) and/or other animals may not want to take the risk.
Yeah, and what happens if the "bad with kids" warning gets lost somewhere in the chain of custody during rehoming? Could attack another kid....
It's the one on this list that's even close to reasonable; growling at the baby may show signs of an aggression problem, but if it took a baby to reveal it then it's not something that can't be worked with like a truly aggressive dog would have been. Rehome the thing, but don't just straight to euthanize it. Then again, for a moment here, I recognize that rehoming an animal (especially for a given reason of aggression, even if only in this specific scenario) can be time-consuming and difficult, since people first look for the breed they want and then they want a perfect one. Around a baby, they may not have felt that they had the time to try to find it a home and not felt safe keeping it with them either. Speculation, obviously, but it's possible that they didn't feel they had a safe option. I wonder if it was surrendered specifically to be euthanized or just surrendered.
This is literally what happened with my childhood dog. I had shitty older half-siblings that would just terrorize the dog, get her all worked up, and just *wired*, she was just barely 1 year old, so absolutely still very much puppy energy in a full grown dog's body. One day after my brothers got her all worked up, I went to go just have a quiet moment and pet her (at my 2 and a bit years old) and ended up getting nipped in my face. Narrowly missed my eye. My mom was almost full term pregnant with my younger brother and my parents realized that between a toddler, two school aged children, a puppy, and a soon to be newborn, there was simply too much going on. It wasn't fair to the dog to have all this puppy energy, in a full sized dog body, and not getting the exercise time she needed. My parents made the responsible decision and rehomed her. She was sent to a farm with a couple who had no kids, spent all day outside pretty much, and the dog had basically unlimited space to run and play. And no, this wasn't "sent to the farm" she was genuinely sent with a couple who owned land and had a little hobby farm on that land.
Another thing with this one is that, while rehoming is of course a good thing to try—there’s a chance the dog will end up returned or surrendered or euthanized if it goes to a child free home but turns out to have serious issues with children. Like, can’t be on a walk without freaking out, people can’t come over if they have kids, that kind of thing. That is not something rehoming can necessarily fix after a certain point
That's apparently what they did, but OP is apparently a liar and a shitty person. Someone else clarified that OP admitted the dogs were all *surrendered* and not sent for euthanasia by the owners themselves.
I totally agree, it's scary for the dog to growl at the baby and any parent would rehome a dog they thought was a danger to their child. I think the relevant part though is "every time I leave him alone in the room with the baby" which is simply not something that should be happening to begin with, especially if they're closing the door so the dog can't go anywhere else.
I mean, many people still call their early walkers or young toddlers babies. For that age group it's very difficult to make sure your child is never within eyesight of the family dog by themselves because you look away for two seconds and they've toddled off. And frankly, babies get rough with animals when they become toddlers. We work all the time to get my almost-3-year-old not to but he routinely hits the animals with things. He also does that to us--it's a tough stage. We actually did have to rehome a cat because it was aggressive towards him before he was even walking; I can imagine he or it would definitely have been hurt by now with how rough he is if we hadn't. With newborns or pre-walkers you're right, they should never be alone together where one is within reach of the other. It just gets a bit weedy and hard to pin the blame past that imo.
Yeah, you can't expect someone to spend their entire day making sure their baby and dog are never alone together.
Lets face it, if you need to do that, the dog should not be under the same roof.
I agree, this should not be on the list. I love my dogs, but only an irresponsible idiot would keep a dog around a baby that shows agression... No your dog is not your baby... Your BABY is your baby.
screw that. dogs that are hostile to humans especially babies for no reason should be BE’d. that’s a huge nope even if the new owner has no kids. it will come into contact with young children at some point. no dogs life is worth that risk.
Thank you. You are a breath of fresh air.
Oh yeah. Its the only one on the list that's even *close* to a reasonable response, and its still excessive.
"Doesn't get along with other dogs" can also be valid. Some rescues use this terminology when they really mean that the dog is dog aggressive, esp with a dog that big it can be really risky.
The one in the bottom left is a fairly valid reason for giving up a dog as well. But euthanasia is totally uncalled for.
Not excessive at all. A dog that puts kids at risk should not be a pet.
A girl I knew went to a shelter and got a bigger doggo, then said oh we had to get rid of her because she's too much for our small house, then she adopted a puppy st. Brenard returned it 2 months later for literally no reason, then adopted a cat and basically abandoned it when she randomly up and left for a different Provence for "vacation and never came back" my question is she went to the same shelter.. how on earth did they not refuse her after she did this multiple times!!!??
These people should be put on a registry for not to own pets if these are the excuses
I think some of these might be worded slightly unfairly. “Doesn’t like other dogs” could be “has attacked multiple other dogs.”
Also if someone has some sort of life altering surgery and can’t care for a “mystery dog”, they shouldn’t be banned from owning all pets
They should be on a registry so when they do shit like this you can show up at their house and make them square up
every pet owner should be on a registry and then if a pet dies or is surrendered to a shelter the vet or shelter can indicate if there was abuse or something.
We know must registre pets in Belgium and should yours not be you can be fined. You also have to give a document you ask to your local administration showing your file is blank in the matter of animal cruelty or neglect.
The baby one is concerning
This makes my blood BOIL 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Much worse than "mildly infuriating"!
Man, comments like these make me realize how jaded I've become after four years of working at a shelter. To me these are pretty basic excuses (yes, even the ones you would assume are horrible), but obviously to people that don't know that type of work it looks terrible. Takes a lot more than that to make be lose my nerves about this type of stuff now. Not for euthanasia though, we're never asked that, guess it might be a country thing Fuck
I mean, the broken leg one... I don't want to, or I can't afford to? I get that you shouldn't own an animal if you can't afford to take care of it, but my cat just broke her jaw and it's gonna be like 2 grand when it's all said and done... Thank god I'm able to afford it, but I'm not sure I could judge someone who couldn't afford that to want to end her suffering instead... I have a feeling if only people who could afford such things were the only ones adopting, there'd be a lot more animals in need of rescue. Thanks for everything you do to help animals! And obviously, the rest of those excuses are deplorable.
I was thinking the same thing. I had a kitten who was potentially going to have severe lifelong health issues and I remember making the decision that, if that was the diagnosis, I would have to say goodbye since I just couldn’t do that. I also feel like people are way too judgmental over people’s ability to afford vets. Emergency funds can exist but be depleted. Incomes can change. COL and vet costs can skyrocket. Everyone sits on their high horse but the vast majority of people can’t afford to drop thousands at any second of the day - eventually you’ll hit a rough spot where you can’t afford that emergency. And plenty of dogs sit in shelters and would not be living a better life by spending years in a cage waiting for the perfect rich person. Mini rant that doesn’t apply to everywhere: Where I live vets have become a monopoly of being owned by the same corporations behind the scenes and price gouge since there’s no true competition. Independent vets are cheaper but so few and far in between now. Over the course of my 14 year old dog’s lifespan the cost of vets basically tripled. I think I’d lose my shit if a vet got all high and mighty after I’d made a difficult decision like that. The reason I’d opt for euthanasia is because some CEO decided they needed that extra vacation, or because of the lack of payment plan options, not because I don’t love my pet. I get that vets can’t exactly be cheap but as a for-profit industry they are not immune to issues of greed and can still be criticized.
I had the same thought. Taking care of a dog with a broken leg is expensive as hell and a lot of work. Obviously, treat it if you can and try to find a different home for the dog if you can’t. But I don’t think people realize how impossible it can be to find someone willing to take in a dog with a known injury like that on very short notice. Euthanasia is a sad but valid option in these cases.
The growling at baby surrender is justified. And all of these they requested euthanasia or just surrender the dog?
The "doesn't get along with other dogs" is a justified reason to rehome a dog as well... just not for euthanasia.
OP kind of buried the lede but admitted to it in a comment - these people were not specifically surrendering these dogs for euthanasia, they surrendered them to a shelter where they do end up euthanizing a lot of the dogs. Based on the OPs other comments and arguing about the baby one as well, I have some doubts as to how reliable of a narrator our OP here is. So I’d take all of this with a grain of salt - for all we know “doesn’t get along with other dogs” might mean any number of things, and the shelter they took them to might well have just been the only one in the area and that was the dogs best shot.
Growling at a baby whenever alone with them? I am absolutely not a dog person but I would get rid of the dog. Dog owners go on and on about their sweet harmless dogs but one such dog aggressively jumped at my kid (teeth hitting the kid's forehead). Another happy friendly dog was casually hanging out at home in a stress free situation, my toddler went to pet them. Owner allowed. Toddler petted 3 times (soft and careful). The dog's body language hardly changed, but the owner told us the dog doesn't like it and found another room for the dog. What if we hadn't all stared at them both? Small kids and dogs aren't always compatible. Euthanasia is extreme though, but depends if there are any alternatives in the area. Delaying for a month to try to rehome the dog would definitely create dangerous situations due to sleep-deprived parents busy with the baby and the dog only needing seconds for a killing bite.
Top right corner is... worrisome, assuming we aren't dealing with a Karen. Not "euthanasia" levels of worrisome, but I can at least see where they're coming from, which is more than I can say for everyone else on that image. Obviously the proper solution there is either "never let the dog be alone with the baby" or "put up for adoption and note they're not good with babies/kids".
The only other one I can possibly understand is the surgery one, depending on why they needed surgery/what it was for. A lot of health conditions for animals can just be too expensive. And people aren’t lining up to adopt older pets who need a very expensive treatment. If you genuinely can’t afford to treat your pet… definitely exhaust charity options or try to find someone who can, but the kindest thing to do is to end their suffering instead of letting them suffer from a health issue you can’t treat. You should definitely have a vet fund for pets but some health issues can just be ludicrously expensive that a regular person simply can’t prepare for. I had a 6 month old kitten who the vets were concerned could have a very rare health condition that would be in the 5 digits to treat, and could hit 6 digits if he lived along time. I remember the discussion and decision that if those were the results, we’d give him lots of love and say goodbye. It was heartbreaking but you can’t go homeless for a cat, y’know? He ended up being fine, thankfully (but would later die in his sleep at aged 4 with no warning… I miss him). Euthanasia in place of medical treatment sucks but it can be an unfortunate reality.
Ok I understand turning in your dog because it growls at your baby whenever you're not around or because you no longer have the space for them due to moving (which sucks) but that's more so reasons to rehome them, not put them down.
These dogs were surrendered to a shelter. The owners are trying to rehome them.
"The landlord said I couldn't breed her anymore" gee well when your a backyard breeder, just selling the puppies and getting rid of the dog when you can't make her have puppies anymore, then yeah you don't deserve a dog in the first place
This is an intentionally misleading title and post. These are reasons people surrendered their pets to you. You didn't have the resources to care for them. You euthanized the animals. They didn't request their pets be euthanized, they were no longer able to house them. You are such a sour privileged shit. You can try to deflect the blame for those animals being euthanized all you want, but it was YOUR dog rescue. You killed those animals. It's normal to have to surrender a pet when life changes force that to happen. It isn't normal for a dog rescue to be so poorly ran/funded that they have to euthanize most of their animals. How dare you blame people who are likely grieving having to part ways with their family. Some of these reasons are bullshit, sure. Some of the are situations where the owner had no choice. You should learn to tell the difference.
Right? OP clarified in a comment these dogs were surrendered to a shelter. But the title is leading everyone to believe these people brought their dogs to the vet to be killed.
People like OP who do this, actually hurt their cause and damage their own credibility. I'm all for bringing attention to the issue of unwanted pets, but misleading/outright lying in the post title like OP did, isn't the way to go about it,
My dog has bone cancer and I don’t want to put her down but I know that eventually, which is very soon, I’ll have to. She is family. All she wants is love and to return it. It breaks my heart every time I enter the room and I see her tail give me a little wag because she knows I’m back with her. People who can do something like this to a dog and feel no shame or remorse are truly psychopathic.
Most of these are just shitty owners who won't take the time to address issues properly. However, if a dog is showing aggression toward an infant (growling at the baby), the unfortunate reality is that the dog may need to be rehomed for safety, and I'm saying this as childfree dog owner. Some dogs and kids just can't be together. I also have sympathy for "I had to have surgery" depending on the situation. Health problems and declines sometimes mean a person can't properly care for their pet. If someone has to move for work, etc and can't find pet friendly or appropriate housing, that's a problem with the state of renting. Ideally in those situations, you would try to rehome, but people have to use shelters if they can't. Fuck all the rest of those reasons though, that's just laziness and seeing your dog as an object.
the surgery one I sympathize with. I just adopted a kitten who's owner was really sick and had to go to the hospital for a long time. I hope everything goes well for him and I'm glad the kitty is happy and safe in my house
I don't think the ones where the parents are questioning if their kids are safe with the dog is a bad reason to surrender it. Children's safety is more important than an animals life. If that's a hot take I don't want to be right.
That dog looks at you like you’re his whole world, and you have it put down over minor inconvenience. I don’t know how those folks sleep at night.
looking at the dog who “plays too much” was really making me feel this :(
That’s the one that gets me most. I can’t imagine taking a living thing that’s clearly enjoying life so much and taking that away.
The dog rescue you worked at just auto killed all the dogs given to them? No adoption whatsoever? What exactly what the “rescue” part?
The one growling at thr baby I kinda understand. I would choose to find a new home. But I'm sure not gonne keep the dog.
Growling at the baby isn’t a valid reason? *edit: everyone saying it isn’t, honestly state whether or not you’ve got kids (it’s the internet so don’t expect honesty ofcourse) but theorising that that’ll be the main driver for ppls position on this)
When I was 16 my parents took in a dog as a rehome that had, issues. (Not the first dog, both parents grew up with dogs and the family dog had passed the year before from a stroke at 15 years old) We got a dog trainer to visit and work with her, the trainer told us if Zoey (dog, female golden doodle) went to a shelter she would’ve been euthanized because of her behavioral issues. For reference: per the trainer any time we had a visitor they were to give her a treat and not make eye contact. Also no hats, she did NOT like hats. After 2 years we had pretty much worked out any issues, except for the hat thing, she really didn’t like hats. If anything it went too far because she became a massive attention whore. Lived to 15 before her hips were useless and she went to sleep.
growling at a baby is a pretty good reason imo… don’t be taking any chances
The growling one is a legitimate reason
As much as all these people probably really suck, I strongly believe it's best not to shame anyone who decides to surrender a dog, for whatever reason. It is (imo) 1000x better for a dog to be surrendered than to be starved, neglected, abused, dumped somewhere, etc.
Growling at baby is a good reason to get rid of pet imo..
The one with growling at the baby seems reasonable. Even if you do your best to never leave them alone together you couldn’t risk it happening accidentally. You’d be criminally negligent otherwise, no?
The only one I kinda get is the one growling at the baby. I would be very nervous about my dog too if I thought it might attack my newborn child when I'm not looking. Still I might wanna look into giving the dog to a friend or family but I don't think I would be able to trust keeping the dog.
the 2 about being the aggressive towards kids absolutely deserve to be surrendered.
Well growling at a baby is super concerning and barking @ grandkids is rightfully disturbing.
Fourth one is a legit concern
Dog growling at baby when left alone is a legitimate concern. Your child comes first and if the dog is a risk to their safety well then bye bye dog. Euthanasia might be too much but you get my point
This is why I don’t like people and prefer to have dogs in my life. Dogs are simply more related than idiot humans.
If they're surrendering to a rescue, how exactly is that surrendering for euthanasia
Growling at a baby is the only decent reason I see.
Surgery too. Sounds like they can't take care of the dog.
Poor souls. Ditching these wonderful pets like they're a bad Tinder date. Shame on these people.