I’m going to agree with @Tucker5 here. I have dispatched an animal with an axe. It was the only humane option at the time. Unless you feel that letting a broken backed raccoon die slowly is more humane?
I hated doing it. I’d have preferred something else. I’m not at all sure I could euthanize a beloved pet at home. I mean I know the mechanics and have the requisite tools. I just don’t know if I could.
And yes, pets are commodities in a sense. I think the poster worded it poorly. But, while our pets are not commodities to those of us who have them and love them, they are most assuredly commodities in the market. The pet industry is worth billions of dollars in the United States. Our emotional attachment to our pets is also marketed, mercilessly.
I hesitated to write this, but carbon monoxide is a relatively easy death. I used it on a opossum in a live trap. Turned on the mower in the shed and closed the door.
I guess I’m lucky because we have a couple of emergency vet clinics here (not a giant city but a decent sized one). One is about 30 minutes from me and it never fails that when you need them, it’s a weekend or nighttime.
Last visit was about 3 weeks ago, one of my cats would not stop vomiting. Couldn’t eat and couldn’t drink without vomiting within a few minutes. I got there around 4 PM, got home around 12:30 AM. No real answer but I did finally figure out that the dude was having problems going #2. You know if you go there, you will be there at least 5 hours. But at least they are there. The other emergency clinic is way far on the other side of town - haven’t used it because it is over an hour to get there (no easy way over to the east side from the west side).
I have a friend in the local vet school here who says one of the instructors is planning on opening an emergency clinic close to where I live. I’ll believe it when I see it but it sure would be wonderful to have it so close!!
No one is saying that suffering wildlife shouldn’t be dealt with promptly with the tools at hand.
Yes, this is exactly the point. Expecting people to euthanize their pets with an ax is so unreasonable on several different levels.
I hatch baby chicks and raise the boys for butcher. I butcher dozens of birds every year. I am more comfortable with ending the life of animals that I’ve raised than most. There are so many people out there with chickens that love their birds & don’t want them to suffer but ending a life is beyond them. And chickens are overall “easy” to kill humanely.
Even with my experience and relative comfort in dispatching birds, ending the life of one of my cats or dogs or horses is not something I’d feel capable of doing. In my lifetime of ownership, I’ve also only been faced with one event where it was abundantly clear that what I was looking at was an unsurvivable event. In general, it’s not clear, and some level of diagnostic work is necessary to know.
There are so few circumstances where immediate euthanasia is really on the table, and then the number of people out there that have the skill, tools, or even option wrt local law to follow through is teeny. It’s not a reasonable expectation for just about anyone.
I understand what you are saying, but I think we are talking past each other here. I don’t regard killing an animal with an axe as animal cruelty or as immoral (which is what was stated upthread), IF that is a) the only option and b) you are both competent with an axe and you can do it cleanly when emotionally upset. There are a few people who can do that. However, most people, myself included, probably could not use an axe to kill a beloved pet. It would be cruel to a competent person to ask them to do so. It would be cruel to both the animal and the person if the person wasn’t competent.
I completely agree with your opinion that we are talking about very rare circumstances and it is unreasonable request for many people.
Axe.
Axe. Axe.
AXE.
Shall I repeat it again for dramatic effect?
This, in part, is what I’m referring to as a cultural shift in vet med and society in general. The tool that I happened to use in this cause has been seized upon to provoke horror and upset. No attention has been paid to the circumstances in which it was used nor, that I used the blunt end of the axe head. All that has been replayed is the word “axe”, over and over again.
At the time I was burning large log piles. Axe, chainsaw, shovel. If you chose to let the rabbit die on it’s own then that is your choice. I chose to use the tools I had at hand to end it’s suffering instantaneously. You see my actions as cruel. I would see your inaction as cruel. This is NOT something that needs advanced diagnostics or a DVM to tell me that the animal is dying. That attitude is condescending and stupid.
I’d have used the shovel, because of the longer handle and wider surface area. (My hand eye coordination isn’t
the best).
I’ve said this before:
I think it’s absolutely bonkers to suggest the solution to our current veterinary crisis is an axe.
Did we time travel back to 1849?
Please.
No one has said your action with the axe and the rabbit was a problem.
But expecting Joe Blow down the street to bash in Fluffy’s brains with an axe or a shovel or a baseball bat when Fluffy is doing poorly is bonkers. Even people who are comfortable with death.
And yes, in many jurisdictions, doing that would be considered animal cruelty. And it WOULD BE because very few people are going to be able to make that death a good one.
So it’s Friday night and your beloved fenchie starts with violent vomiting for reasons unknown. Do you axe them right away so it doesn’t get worse? Or do you let them suffer for as long as possible before you decide you have no choice but to chop their head off?
Or, since it’s freaking 2022, do you CALL THE VET? But wait, now we are being told we can’t do that anymore…
The veterinary crisis is real and needs to be remedied. This isn’t something to brush off.
So here we go again with the
Axe.
Axe. Axe
AXE.
Again, this is why this conservation is so maddening. Can you not understand the difference between vomiting and a rabbit that is severely burned over it’s entire body? It’s eyes are opaque because they have been burned. It cannot see. It’s ears are half gone. I have no idea how in the world it is breathing.
CAN YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE?
Because I can understand the difference.
The majority of animal control officers in my region have seen the horror of massive wildfires on wildlife and domestics. They would not even begin to entertain the thought of animal cruelty in this case.
Yep, it’s 2022 and guess what, vet med is not available to every one at every time. This is reality. What can folks do … I will repeat yet again … Know your resources and your limits
Can you not understand that no one is taking a severely burned rabbit to the veterinary ER?
The topic is about losing veterinary emergency services for pets, not dispatching injured wild animals. You can say axe all you want but it’s not a solution to this problem.
My understanding is not the problem. Read over my posts again and again if you are having difficulty understanding my responses. I’ll help you out with some quotes This post 22
This is post 34
As for “axe”, have a chat with some other posters as they seem rather fascinated by the word.
I am fortunate to live in NYC where we have numerous emergency vets, which I have sadly had to use in the past numerous times, including after hours. I had a cat with multiple comorbidities and two dogs with brachycephalic syndrome, one of whom had an accident involving 3rd degree burns (I was not present for the incident), and who also later had a brain tumor. I am on a first name basis with most of the staff at my closest veterinary ER as a result. FWIW, the cost of an ER visit here, where everything costs a premium, isn’t $700. An ER exam is $350. Of course diagnostics and interventions will cost extra.
Years ago, a friend was taking care of my dog while I was on vacation and it severely wounded a chicken. Friend couldn’t bring herself to dispatch the chicken, despite my over-the-phone pleas for her to end its suffering. It suffered all night, into the next day when a vet finally euthanized it (I paid the bill). It still haunts me. Poor thing. I would like to think I could have dispatched it, but I also don’t want to put myself in that position.
I have looked to move outside the city, both on this coast and out West, and the lack of emergency veterinary care has ruled out many locations for me. I have just been too scarred by my past experiences to contemplate living where I couldn’t access either emergency care or emergency euthanasia.
This thread has gotten completely unhinged!
When my 15-year-old dog was having seizures, I had to take her to two vets in the immediate area within a matter of hours to get a correct diagnosis. This was despite her having recent, complete blood work. She eventually had to be put down but at least I had the peace of mind I did all I could, and her condition wasn’t treatable. I’m very lucky to have had that option. I’m also lucky that the bill for both visits, after some negotiation, wasn’t as high as what was quoted above.
I can’t believe how cruel some people are being.
I’ve also taken baby birds to a wildlife facility to be rehabbed when I know they didn’t fall from a nest (found in a bale of hay). Sheesh.
I actually don’t see anyone being cruel. Just a mismatch in expectations for how skilled someone needs to/should be to deal with an animal in crisis, be that a per or a wild animal. The original point was about lack of access to after hours/ER care for pets.
My bad, I thought these words were yours:
No one is disagreeing that in a life or death situation where there is no time for transport, people should be able to dispatch an animal.
I take issue with cavalier attitudes towards this problem in general. We are quickly approaching a crisis in veterinary access unless we find a remedy. This topic has come up several times in recent months and in each thread, there are usually voices (not yours in particular) that chime in with comments like “I’m well educated to handle emergencies so it’s not an issue for me,” or “we didn’t have veterinary emergency services when I was growing up,” or “you’ll just have to euthanize your animals yourself.” While those types of statements may be true, they are not a solution.
Uh, I think that’s you.
I am feeling very fortunate that we have two emergency vets within 20 minutes and a third about an hour away.
I can’t imagine living somewhere where vet care for either/or small or large animals is that sparse. I don’t know the answers but it must scary.
I think those posters’ may be expressing their individual solutions to the problem of limited vet access. When the OP asked “Any ideas for us”, I understood that as needing an individual solution for their situation. This would be different than a solution to problems within the overall vet-med system. Both have problems. Both need solutions. While the system and individual are most definitely linked (no, duh) the how, what, and when will differ. I just know that I can’t fix the vet med system. I have a chance though, of doing something to fix my animal. (driving 2hrs to an ER, giving Banamine for a fever, etc) And who knows, maybe those individual solutions give us some illusion of control that allows us to deal with life and death.
For myself, I’m very grateful that only a few times has access been a problem. Cattle vets are haul-in for us, 1hr10min west or 1hr40min east. Yes, I’ve done both numerous times for regular visits and emergencies. I’ve taken injured wildlife to a wildlife rescue an hour away; a month ago marked the 4th time. We’ve been to the small animal ER 3x, including waiting over 4 hours to be seen. More urgent cases bumped us back and that was fine; no complaint from us. And we’ve have a couple of urgent runs to my regular vet when the pup decided to run into barbed wire twice in 5 days! And saying this isn’t to pat myself on the back or say “if I can drive this, you can to”. No. This is just my reality and what I have chosen to do. Grateful for it.
