My question must be re-phrased, thusly " In other words, is three =
minutes of
suffering for a dumb pet worth 15 weeks of life for a human"?

There are choices and then there are choices. If a person does not =
spend the money for the euthanasia, then he will spend it for the vet. =
I had a client with 3 small children. The family acquired a cute fuzzy =
wuzzy daisy dog with an unfortunate genetic bone disease. The dogs =
forelegs were actually rotating in the shoulder sockets and by the time =
the dog was 6 months old, his feet were on almost backwards...the local =
high priced vet with the CAT scan, etc. referred them to the state =
university vet hospital for extensive surgery. The surgery was going to =
cost 4K. The woman asked my opinion and I gave it to her honestly. I =
said that 4K buys a lot of groceries and a lot of healthy puppies that =
could play with her children. I explained that even though it would be =
a hard thing to do, euphonizing the animal was probably the best thing =
all around. I lost her as a client, but still knew people who were =
familiar with the family. The dog died on the operating table and they =
still owed 4K for the surgery. And their kids still didn't have a dog =
they could play with. And I bet Christmas was pretty light that year. =20

Everyone justifies their own actions by their own set of ethics and =
values. Each person holds one thing more dear than another person =
might. I'm not going to judge a person for spending money on =
euphonizing an animal over feeding someone starving in Africa. The New =
testament says that the poor will always be with us. We can alleviate =
that as much as possible, but we still have our own lives. I guess =
unless we all decide to emulate St. Francis of Assisi (who BTW did not =
exclude animals from his care...that we're just kind of stuck making the =
best decisions we know how with what we personally have to work with.
--=20
katysails
s/v Chanteuse
Kirie Elite 32
http://katysails.tripod.com

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax
and get used to the idea." - Robert A. Heinlein