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Just plain killing
Operating a shelter is challenging in times of economic recession and the past few years have seen the number of abandoned animals increase in the face of lost incomes and difficult times. Animal lovers are working to help homeless dogs and cats and provide them with safety, food, and shelter. Dogs living on the streets cannot all be called strays. Many of them are cared for by people living around them. They are community dogs.
Suffering is inevitable for some, but our ability to understand and sympathize with their plight and circumstances plays a major role in whether we take action to relieve this suffering.
Compassion is a highly valued quality. It is more than just concern or empathy. Empathy involves the ability to feel the emotion of another animal, but compassion is fueled by wanting to take action to help the animal. Compassion is having a genuine care and concern in a way that is both active and responsive.
Euthanasia is a compassionate act. The definition of euthanasia is as follows.
Euthanasia: Noun. The painless killing of a human or non-human suffering from an incurable disease or irreversible coma (Oxford Dictionary).
Euthanasia: The act or practice of killing a living being human or non-human who is terminally ill or injured in order to prevent any more suffering (Webster’s Dictionary).
Euthanasia: The act or practice of painlessly ending the life of an animal or willing human who has a terminal illness or incurable condition as by lethal injection.
“Euthanasia” only concerns death that is in the interest of a human or non-human in terminal suffering. Death is never in the interest of a healthy animal. When a shelter kills a healthy animal, it is not euthanasia, it is just plain killing, and it is wrong. We need a change.
Damiana Smith
Puerto Rico, Saipan
