Research Paper : Animal Euthanasia

Minh 1 Anh Minh Le
Ms. Carr
English 3
29/01/2013
Animal Euthanasia : should or should not ?
Death of any type is always a controversial issue whenever debated. This natural process attracts our human-being’s curiousness and raises millions of unanswered questions, such as what do we actually feel before we die or is there any possibility to avoid it? In general, we can roughly come up with an conclusion that no one prefer “dying” to “living”, or like Eleanor Roosevelt stated: “One must never, for whatever reason, turn one’s back on life”. However, that leads to a new recent modern matter : Euthanasia – the mercy killing. It may be considered as a fair action because the victim still has the right to decide whether to accept it or not. But let’s ponder for a second. Euthanasia it’s not that narrow and specific, it’s not on only human. What if it is applied for animals? Unlike us, those animals- normally are pets or members of the zoos don’t have the right to keep their lives or die in an unexpected way. Many animal right activists opposed this - what they called an inhuman action, but the others have plenty of contrary ideas. They argue that is necessary for terminally ill patients, or a good way to control the population.
To begin with, let’s explore more about this “animal euthanasia”. This is the act of humanely putting an animal to death or allowing it to die as by withholding extreme medical measures. Most of its methods are designed to cause minimal pain and distress. There are many kinds of this activities namely “free bullet”- when such big animals like horses received a direct bullet to their forehead, which result in instant deaths or “captive bolt” that is common used for cattle. But according to The 2012 DVM Newsmagazine State of the Profession survey(), more euthanasias were performed despite increase in stop treatment point recently with tables 1 and 2 :

Generally, there are many different explanations for this upward trend. First of all, Jenifer Bove – an article writer who had a survey all over the United State ‘s zoos came up with her own conclusion :” Euthanasia is a controversial means of population control used by zoos.” And this is the reason : “Zoos that favor euthanasia over contraception generally allow animals to mate naturally and permit mothers to raise their young until an age at which the family groups would instinctively separate in the wild. At that point , zoo officials employ lethal injection to kill young animals that exceed the zoo’s carrying capacity, don’t fit into breeding plans, and are unwanted by other zoos In the spring of 2012, the Copenhagen Zoo euthanized a pair of leopard cubs who were approaching two years of age as part of their breeding management plan. “
This is the very significant mission of the zoos- to manage population. Therefore animal euthanasia could be morally right and justified till it is used for correct reasons. In addition, euthanasia is also the only way to spare the agony of watching our loved pets have to suffer and reduce the spread of diseases, based on the article “ do you agree or disagree with euthanasia or mercy killing” :” if a terminal patient faces a long, slow , painful death, surely it is much kinder to spare them this kind of suffering and allow them to end their life comfortably. This idea is also suggested by the Central Zoo Authority of India who said :”euthanasia of zoo animals may be carried out only in the specific circumstances when any animals is in such an agony or pain that it is cruel to keep him alive. Though it’s the fact that we cannot communicate with animals, thus they can’t tell us how they fell at a specific time, but with modern technology, we can predict that. On the other hand, according to K. Sri Dhammananda – a Buddhists believer “ some people try to justify mercy killing with the misconception that if the motive or reason is good, then the act itself is good. Actually it is not that they have mercy toward those animals, but they kill them for their own precaution and to get rid of an awful sights
It is evident that if an animal, a pet have a kind of affected disease, we human have to have a fear in mind of being affected. Moreover, the writer also mentions about a moral issue : “ If mercy killing is the correct method to be practiced on pets and other animals, then why people are so reluctant to do the same to the beloved ones?” Some could also claim that animal euthanasia is murder and immoral because they has the right to live longer . Based on…,”patients that are in comas and have not indicated that they wish to die have the right to continue their lives until the natural end. Who are we to say that they should die when it’s convenient to us? That should be left unto God decide.” Life cannot be created so life should not be taken away. Not to mention that animals are incapable of deciding for themselves. Deciding death or life is God’s work and we ought not to interfere it. Similarly, according to… “ 2 Samuel 1:4-10 says,”And David said unto him , How went the matter? I pray thee, tell me…..my lord Here was an incident that could be classified as euthanasia. How did David respond to this action? Did he consider it as a mercy killing? No, David treated it as murder.”
Personally speaking, i am against animal euthanasia since it violate seriously moral aspects as well as the right to “survive”. Thomas Jefferson stated :” all men are created equal” .However, I deeply believe this statement has a larger meaning. Not all men, but all species ,all creations that the Almighty God has created are equal. Therefore, it is not a mercy death for a pet or an animal at all if we kill will them without their permission, even for their goods. In terms of science, it’s clear that there’s a basic difference between two scientific terms “merciful killing” and “merciful death” : the victim’s approval. Speaking of animals, they ‘re more likely to suffer from mercy- killing than mercy-death. And that method is basically another form of murder and should be banned. Just imagine, when a human patient in the hospital know he’s going to be put to death, he cried and beg the doctor not to let him die, not kill him. Could we can still go ahead and act like “heroes” ,trying to save him from pain? I believe the same thing would occur if animals knew how to talk, to express their feelings. In conclusion….