"Thou art God." -Valentine Michael Smith
Being at the top of the food chain isn't all fun and games. Humans usually don't get eaten by the lower animals, but being so far on top saddles us with a lot of often times unpleasant responsibility for the creatures over which we have dominion- particularly domesticated pets.
To them, we are God. Personally, I don't entirely like that. I like the affection of a fuzzy puppy dog or kitty cat, but then you have to try to even figure out what they need before you can provide it. They can't talk, so it's often worrisome to figure what they need. Worrying about that need and dependence can be stressful and unpleasant.
Then there's making the really difficult decision to kill them. It's not something that a decent empathetic person would do for fun or to satisfy their curiosity like Dutch Wagenbach in The Shield's "Strays," but sometimes it's the best and most responsible thing to do.
Sometimes this just really absolutely has to be done. Fido is old and sick, and he's been loyal to the family. The only thing to do is to put him down peacefully rather than letting him linger in pain. Very often, we put off such a necessity way past any reasonable point. Refusing to take your godly responsibility can result in horrible needless suffering.
Almost no one would object to euthanizing a diseased animal that just absolutely can't be helped. But then there's a more gray area. Lots of perfectly healthy dogs and cats get euthanized at animal shelters cause there's just no place for them. It sucks, but it's hard fact that in America we have millions more dogs and cats than any homes for them. Rather than have them running loose, spreading disease, and suffering themselves, we put them to sleep. It's the only responsible choice.
In truth, this really isn't bad at all. WE feel bad about doing it, but a simple shot isn't painful. They don't know what it's all about. They don't have our forward projected fear of death, which is part of the curse that goes with our high level human consciousness. They're going to die eventually. Much better a quick shot than disease and starvation in the wild. The anguish is mostly all in OUR heads, not theirs.
There seems to be a big difference in people's minds about who's doing it. Few object when the pound finds it necessary to kill unwanted animals. But woe be unto you if you do this to your own animals. Perhaps it seems more fair or impartial or something when the animal shelter euthanizes an animal.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - with karate ill kik ur ass
i hate cats, they shit everwhere!!
2 - LegendaryMonkey
I dunno, Al... sometimes, if an animal has a behavior issue, it may just be that it's not with the right family or in the right home. I had a very sweet and loving cat who craved attention constantly. If I didn't pet or play with him half the day, he took to pissing everywhere. As I worked long hours and couldn't be home all the time to give him the attention he needed, this was a problem.
So I found him a home with several children and he's apparently been just fine, no behavior issues at all. He's been sweet and playful and the children really like him. Perhaps if I hadn't known a suitable family from work, my story wouldn't have a happy ending... but what sort of God are you if you selfishly hold on to a pet when you can supply what they need, and in the end, kill it?
If an animal is sick with no chance of getting better, I can see it. I wouldn't want either of my cats to suffer. One of them has a weak stomach and is prone to stomach bugs (my sweet boy Random). He occasionally vomits. My only options on this, according to our vet, are to prepare a special diet for him or give him medicine daily. We tried the medicine for a while, but it seriously stressed him out, so Mr. Monkey and I discussed and decided we can clean up a little cat vomit now and again.
My cats are like my children. If one of my children had a weak stomach and was prone to vomit (or, say, couldn't be potty trained for several years), I wouldn't put them down. I do realize animals aren't people, but my two kitties are most definitely a part of my family and I will go to great lengths for him.
Sometimes, there are other solutions. I can't say I advocate killing an animal over behavior problems that you haven't been able to solve on your own. I can see your point, but... having been through something similar and having found an easy solution, I just have to shake my head.
3 - Silas Kain
I love Siamese cats. They are regal, loyal and very intelligent. They are a good judge of humans. If you've got a Siamese cat, you know what I'm talking about. Those that own a Siamese cat realize that it is this breed which is man's best friend. Save a Siamese cat, stir fry a doberman.
4 - Nancy
My cats mean more to me (and behave better) than any humans. I don't give jack shit about humans, but I'll do whatever I can for animals. animals don't judge anyone by their color, gender, or abilities; they don't betray, & they don't torture, but they are loyal and loving, often in the face of constant, repeated abuse. They are far superior to humans IMO, and far more worth saving.
5 - LegendaryMonkey
Silas, my weak-stomached kitty is part Siamese and is probably the most wonderful pet I've ever owned, so I gotta second you on that one. And he IS damned smart... little beast can get into anything. I swear he has opposable thumbs.
6 - gypsyman
Al, good one. I'm a cat lover, have four of the little f#cks myself, and because my wife and I decided not to have children, they are for us our family. In the last four years we have had to put down three cats(which we replaced hence four still)
Two of them were easy, dieing in front of our eyes. The last was difficult. She and I had been hit with boiling water when a vessel I had been holding exploded. I was able to rip my clothes off to prevent burning, she couldn't. We wrapped her in cold towels and rushed her to the vet. She survived, but for the next year went down hill.
One day she just gave up. Wouldn't eat or drink. This went on for a week, we went so far as to get an intravenous kit from the vet's to give her fluids, but she stopped passing stuff. We said goodbye. It wasn't fair to her.
I've always been of the opinion that as humans we need to be more responsible for all of our actions. I eat meat, and I buy it from a store. Idealy I would prefer to hunt it myself, take responsibility for killing the animal(venison and moose taste a hell a lot better than cow anyway)If you take on responsibility for another life, than you have to follow through all the way.
People who dump a cat or dog in the woods, or even let them roam free in neighbourhoods are not being responsible. Aside from the damage both animals can do to other's property, and to the local bird population, there is the real risk of the animal being killed. One idiot woman in our neighbourhood lets her cats roam. One of them was mauled by a dog, and almost died, but she didn't learn. She continued to let them out, and now one was run over by a car. What does she expect.
We have to stop giving animals human characteristics, they react instincutaly which we don't. A bear is not cute and cuddely neither is a racoon when you get to know him (especially her with kids) Thinking otherwise is a great diservice to the animal.
The best thing humans can do for animals is stay the hell away from them, if you do domesticate one: take full responsibility for it. They depend on you. If you don't want it to get knocked up fix it, if you can't afford to fix it, don't get it. Simple.
Sorry Al, I ran on and on there. Good real post. I might disagree with some of it, but right on for making people face up to their responsibilities.
7 - Al Barger
Thanks Gypsyman. I'm all about keeping it real.
In particular, house cats roaming free is really bad. They're going to wreak hell on the neighborhood. People definitely don't need to think that they're being kindhearted by letting them loose rather than putting them down.
8 - kittygogo
Taking your pet out to the backyard and shooting it? I don't care where you were raised, unless your animal is Cujo - that is COLD. Please, if you are capable of doing this, do not get a pet, or a kid, or friends for that matter.
9 - Al Barger
I understand where you're coming from Kitty, but perhaps you lack the proper Godly perspective- which might in fact have to be "cold" at times. In fact though, being dead isn't so bad at all. Really, it's (literally) nothing. Plus, we're all facing that one way or the other. Being dead ain't bad, it's just how you get there that's the tough part.
It simply was not viable any longer for my friend to keep this cat, and there wasn't anyone around wanting it. It is not reasonable to expect her to stay half miserable for years over a damned cat.
This cat was a runty thing from the animal shelter, where cats and dogs get put down regularly. This one had at least a couple of good years, and then a quick painless end- which is much better than she'd have gotten otherwise.
10 - kittygogo
There are better ways to do this, although I personally think it is extremely irresponsible. It seems very sick, twisted and demented to me. Take the animal to the vet, have it humanely put down and bury it in your backyard. Putting a gun to your pets head and pulling the trigger - I'm sorry that is COLD and frankly, sociopathic. Instead of defending this behaviour, I would be truly concerned about the mental stablity of my friend.
11 - Al Barger
Kitty, again I appreciate your compassionate nature, but you're just wrong about the "humane" aspect here. She's a lifelong hunter and conservationist, and she knows what she's doing with a gun. Tuff Guy did not feel a thing, indeed probably less than the prick of the needle from a vet. Being shot might seem worse to you watching from outside, but not to the cat.
It is indeed "cold," but that's cold as in coldly rational rather than emotional. It takes a bit of emotional detachment.
It is absolutely NOT, however, "sociopathic." She did not derive any kind of sick pleasure from it. She hated doing it, but it needed to be done. So she did it.
Also, you do not know her, and I have for many years now. She's not unstable. How would you even get that idea from this story?
Nor is she coldhearted. She's one of the most truly caring individuals I've known. I saw her nursing a damned silly squirrel that the neighbors brought her, which I would have just knocked in the head.
It might tell you something about her that she is obviously THE person that someone in the neighborhood would come to with something like that. I remember that squirrel burying her shotgun shells under the towels like they were nuts.
But now she's a mother, and can't indulge all God's other creatures quite so much as she used to. She's got to have priorities. Her thug first, everybody and everything else trailing out behind.
12 - kittygogo
Yes, I guess you are right Al. I am just too evil or satanic in nature to see the godliness in the cold-blooded nature of kitty-cat murder. Perhaps I should take my adored kitty out in the backyard and blow her brains out on the pavement(she has been pooping on the floor too much lately). I'm sure I will soon feel the joy of god's love in my heart after the holy act.
I say good luck to your friend and hope she decides that pets are not for her - ever. I don't think she truly has a right or a grasp on her role of a responsible pet owner. Of course, I don't and would never hunt and am vegan, so I suppose I truly do have the devil inside of me. I honestly don't even know if I should take this post seriously, it is so offensive to me to think that someone would do this and think it is ok.
My cat's are little runtys from the shelter and I ADORE them, faults, stinky poops, claw scratches and all. Your point is that because her cat wasn't purebreed it is worthless and ok to slaughter? Did your friend make any attempt to remedy this situation in any other way.
Ick. I am sickened by this thread. the thought that a $50 vet bill is the difference between a peaceful (and totally uneccesary) death and a violent, horrific shooting of their cat's brains all over - this post defending pet murder is disgusting.
13 - with karate ill kik ur ass
hay kittygogo
im evil too. maybe we should start a club or somen.
14 - kittygogo
"The satanic right-to-kitty-lifers" or "The devil loves cats club"
15 - Al Barger
Kitty, now you're just descending into cheap sarcasm and smug self-righteousness. That you have the subjective emotional feeling of finding these thoughts "offensive" does not even in a small way constitute proof that they are incorrect or immoral.
The point that you chose not to get is NOT to say that the cat was worthless. Putting it a different way, there are a lot of cats in shelters that have nothing to be done for them but to be put down, which is what this one would have otherwise gotten. In the real world, a couple of good years with the Thug's Ma was more than she'd have gotten otherwise.
Plus, the cat's brains were absoluely were not "all over." It was a .22. Being a morally superior vegan, you might not would know the difference.
Not that it would have made any difference to the cat. The little hole in the back of the head of the actual practice vs being blown to bits would make no difference to the cat. That's absolutely not a thing more than an aesthetic point to the human.
That's the God thing here that you don't seem to get. The compassion and the moral considerations are NOT about YOUR or Thug's Ma's subjective human emotions. The cat did not suffer, not even for a second. Tuff Guy did not know what happened. She was, and then a second later, she was not.
It would be nice if every kitty cat in the world could live happily ever after to a ripe old age. However, this cat was marginal to start with, and life circumstances changed. She couldn't keep up the cat anymore, and there are millions more cats waiting for adoption anyway. Her best option was to put the cat down.
This seems to have worked out for the best all around. The cat's not suffering in the pound, our thug has a cleaner house, the neighborhood songbirds are safer, and now you even get energy to fuel your warm feelings of moral superiority.
16 - kittygogo
I do take offense to you stating that this is a godly duty to kill an unwanted (or as you say marginal) pet. How do you know it is a godly duty? Are you in touch with god. I find the smugness of your attitude as revolting as you find my "cheap smugness and self-righteousness". You are the one who is reading between the lines and coming up with your own interpretation of what you think my attitude is.
The only reason that I pointed out that I am vegan is because I see a different side of this moral coin. You claim that killing an innocent animal is a godly act. Personally, I don't really know if I believe in god or not, but I certainly don't use this as an excuse to go out and commit murder. And if there is a god, I don't see her approving the callous murder of one of her defenseless creatures because of your interpretation of status as being marginal.
How do you know that cat wouldn't have found a loving home from a shelter? At least the cat would have gotten a chance to get adopted and if not, I don't care what kind of gun is used - I think it is wrong. And yeah, I guess I'm not up on my gun information. So shoot me. (ha, ha) Sorry if you don't agree with me, but I don't agree with your callous attitude about the nature of animals either.
Excuse me while I give my kitties a huge hug.
17 - Al Barger
Understand that as a non-believer, I'm using the word "God" in basically a metaphorical way.
That stated though, part of being God, or being a good God anyway, would seem to have to involve a certain amount of "callousness." That is, God has to be responsible and do the best thing as steward, not always what would FEEL good.
Perhaps the Thug's Ma might have found a home for the cat with enough extra effort, which she didn't have to give. She managed to place the other cat months before, but not this one.
In any case, that would have just been one less place to put another kitten or puppy from the pound that hadn't had any chance at all for a life.
You're getting humanity and animals all confused in your mind here. You write of "murdering" and "innocent" cat. "Murder" applies to killing human beings, not lower animals. Would you say that the pig on my BLT was "murdered"?
Nor was the point that Tuff Guy was guilty and "deserved" to die. As Clint would say, deserve's got nothing to do with it. Euthanizing an animal falls under resource management, not criminal conduct.
However, in fact, this cat was absolutely "guilty" if that's the framework you want to use. It was yet one more killing of a songbird that was the last straw that caused the Thug's Ma to reach for the gun. Taking out that cat has saved quite a few birds.
Finally, I note again that being shot by Thug's Ma vs a shot at the vet is a distinction without a difference from the point of view of the cat. The biggest difference is that it would have taken $50 worth of food out of our thug's mouth.
18 - Temple Stark
This is true - right after all the shit-eating-then-lick-your-face dogs get it between the eyes.
Breath not stinking is a big thing for me.
19 - kittygogo
Al,Next time you should be more clear about what you are trying to state. You are basically saying in you headline that killing cats is an act that is equated with being godly. You don't even believe in god, yet you casually toss this off and then think it is not going to ruffle some feathers?
In reality, you are trying to justify(?) your mean friend who got pissed off at her cat and shot it in the head. Once again, very COLD - anyway you look at it. (I think, I guesss I'm not sure what exactly you are tying to say about killing cats. I guess that it's ok to kill them if you find them iirritating?) To me, murder is still murder (I also believe in karma), but at least you are not equating shooting a cat to be a holy act.
Next time (let's hope there isn't one), your friend should spend more time getting to know the animal she is going to adopt. It is not difficult to find dozens of loving cats in any shelter. But cats do chase birds, this should not be a surprise to any cat owner. This is no justificaton for killing a cat, that's what cats do. They also kill rats, which has helped me out on several occastions.
20 - Al Barger
Kitty, perhaps you might have thought that way from just the title, but I think I was fairly clear in the actual column. It's not that you should just go out looking for cats to kill for something to do. How could you have gotten that out of what I actually wrote?
Again, the "godly" thing here is taking hard responsibility and doing unpleasant things that you know need done.
My friend is NOT mean, and she was absolutely, 100% positively NOT "pissed off" with the cat. She had gotten rid of one cat, and the other didn't have any taker. She knew exactly what she was doing and why. It was NOT some acting out of being mad.
You can't know an animal from the shelter that well. She spent a couple of hours hanging out with the cats at the shelter before she took them, but you're not really going to know until you get them home and have them for awhile.
But at that, it's not entirely that the cat was SO bad, but that her life circumstances changed dramatically. She wasn't planning a child, or she wouldn't have gotten the cats at all.
If she didn't have the thug, she'd have probably put up with the neurotic cat. She'd have more time to fool with it. She'd have more tolerance for the shedding.
Note the dichotomy in your own descriptions of this, between "pissed off" and cold. Pissed off would be to say that she got mad and took it out on the animal. That is not correct.
You are more right to describe this as "cold" ie emotionally detached. Again, it is exactly that "coldness" that I'm equating with godliness.
Yes, I of course expected some feathers to be ruffled. I don't say things maliciously just to upset people. But I do say things that I think need saying- even knowing that I might cause some distress.
I'm sorry to have caused you distress- you seem like a genuinely compassionate person. But I hope that it is in the service of pushing people to think important things through, such as the responsibilities of stewardship that I'm speaking of here.
21 - with karate ill kik ur ass
im kinda confused
did kitty want to kill cats or was it al?
22 - gypsyman
I don't personaly see the difference between getting a vet to stick a needle into a cat's vien and killing it humanely at home. any cat I've had put down, my wife and I have held as it dies, which is really fuc*ing hard, but we felt it our duty and responsibility because we were the ones who had made the decsion to end its life.
If I thought that I could end their lives as effciently and painlessly as the vet I would do it. But I wouldn't trust myself to leave it injured and in pain, having to repeat the process endlessly.
Love for your animal should be deep enough to let it go when it is becoming selfishness on your own part keeping it alive. The more control you can have over that situation the better.
gypsyman
23 - DrPat
"becoming selfishness on your own part keeping it alive..."
Worth saying again, g-man! I think much of the passion over pets' rights and feelings is just that kind of selfishness. Thug's Ma made the same decision we did once, when a male cat, a pet of five years, killed and ate three of a litter of five kittens.
He was snug and purring, closely-held until the last second before his death. And I can tell you, there was nothing cold or unemotional about it for us -- it was an agonizing decision to make, and a devastating thing to carry out.
And I have no doubt it was the right thing to do.
24 - Al Barger
Miss Kitty, I wish to apologize for some of comment 15. I spoke sharply to you when I shouldn't have, particularly the phrase "smug self-righteousness" in the first paragraph, and the concluding words about "moral superiority."
You were speaking somewhat harshly with me, but I knowingly walked into extremely touchy territory with this whole article. Therefore, I should have been more patient with you, and not reacted to your perfectly understandable sensitivities in this manner. Sorry.
25 - with karate ill kik ur ass
yeh g-man i mean i hate cats and all but , i wouldnt actually kill 1!!