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

katysails wrote:

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. ...

Any distaste and anger this unfortunate event elicits should be directed
at the fools who bred the cute fuzzy wuzzy daisy dog and at the
over-emotional idiots who suborned their crime by buying it. And no, it
isn't all the big breeders. Had "fuzzy" been a more healthy male, they
might have showed him til he became a "champion" then bred him and taken
"pick of the litter" in payment. Then they'd have bred him to his
daughter to recoup the $big$ they paid for him and make a profit. After
all that's what the people they got him from had done, and recommended -
and the fools before them and ... ad nauseum. That's how these horror
stories begin.