Putting a dog to sleep???

Nope, thankful I am not in this position BUT I was at the vet today whilst my Tilly was have dental work and a cyst removed from leg and whilst I was paying my bill I overheard a discussion a lady was having about having her dog put to sleep. I was amazed at how easily they agreed to have her lab put down. I agree i dont know all the circumstances but my question is do vets have a criteria in which to follow in putting dogs to sleep or can anyone just walk in a request this??

If people choose to have an animal put down it is illegal for a vet to accept the animal and then not do as instructed by a client. They can refuse to put the dog down and thus not enter into a contract with the client, but given the alternatives, a vet is a very humane way to do this, for whatever reason. It's much better than leaving the dog at the pound if it is unlikely to be rehomed, only to have it put down with large batches of other dogs. r to dump the dog in the countryside, where it may be hit by a car, attacked by other animals, or starve to death.

My vets would generally try to address the issue at hand or steer the person towards a rescue if possible or try and help them rehome. In the case of cavaliers, I have several vets who will ring me if any are brought in to be rehomed or as has happened in a few cases, to be put down. The vets have the owner sign the ownership of the dogs over to them however so that they have the legal right to them.

Unfortunately there is always a massive surplus of animals people decide they don't want and which no one else wants either or which can;t be rehomed in time, and that surplus gets put down. Labs, as lovely as they are, are one of the drastically overproduced dogs (everyone wants the cute puppy but not the large strong adult) and they are very hard to home in many places (in Ireland they are extremely hard to home along with greys, lurchers, collies and staffies). So few rescues can take them in or are willing to take them in. But people continue to buy puppies they then grow tired of when they become adults, or fail to spay and neuter their own dogs who are allowed to roam, or get pregnant and are allowed 'just the one pregnancy', adding yet more puppies into this cycle.

There is a surplus of cavaliers too -- no one needs 'just one litter' and if a dog isn't neutered it has every potential, male or female, to add to the problem -- hence Dog's Trust's strong campaign on this issue in the UK and Ireland. I am only just able to manage the numbers that come in to me (which incidentally is a larger number annually than several of the US breed rescues combined :yikes). If more people started contacting me I would have to turn dogs away. And if I had anything remotely close to the numbers of labs handed in to pounds and vets I couldn't possibly cope.

Maybe there was a problem with this dog, illness or temprement issuses. Maybe this was why it seemed the vet seemed to have no problem to do this.

I was in the vets when Woman brought a terrier in to be put down .I think she said it nipped someone. It had obviously just had an operation as it had stitches & seemed a nice little thing

I was sat in my car crying over this poor dog when the owner came out of the vet laughing & smiling , jumped in her car & sped off.

I dont understand how people can be like that . We had a Food aggressive rescue Bullmastiff put down once , it wasnt even my dog . I'd not known it long but I was upset & we almost didnt go through with it , we left the vets then realised it had to be done & went back. A very hard decision to make.....

I wasnt questioning the womens decision its just it made me think and wondering what the "rules" were around a vet putting a dog to sleep. I simply began to wonder if there was a criteria they had to follow. It must be a horrible decision to make

This may sound cruel, but I would rather see that happen then have what happens here be done! I rescue about 30 dogs from freezing to death, being hit on the highway, or killed by coyotes every year. Along with this I also rescue between 100 and 200 cats. All these animals are "kindly" dropped off by my house as people around here say "they will find themselves a nice country home!" My vet loves me!:luv: I bring in all these animals, get them looked after or put down whichever the need be and then work on finding them homes. I feel so sorry for these animals as you can tell they were all "loved" at one time, but then outgrew the puppy stage or needed vet care and became the burden that no one wanted! What gets me is I have let it be known that if you can't or won't take care of your animal bring them right to my yard, I will take them no questions asked and I still have to go pick some poor animal up off the highway that had been hit by a car and drive him and hour and a half to take it to the vet!

i work at a vets and our policy is that we will never put a healthy dog down but if the owner wants the dog put to sleep because they cant keep it for example then we wil help to look for a new home for the dog and the last thing we will ever do is put it to sleep

In the USA - there are no rules about 'when' you can have your pet euthanized. When our vet realizes that an animal is being pts for a fixable or silly reasons- he asks that the people just sign over the pet to him. He promises not to say who had the animal. He has cured and rehomed many lovely dogs and cats.
A vet can always say NO- they won't do it-- but then people will either just find another vet to do it OR they will dump the animal OR kill them themselves.

Reading some of these answer I have to think, what a sad world we live in, when people can't even treat an animal correctly, God only knows how they treat human beings.

I had to have my cat of 18 years, Shadow, pts this past March. I knew it was his time. He couldn't even stand up, just laid there trying to stand. I took him to the emergency vet at 10p. I told them what I need and of course they still examined him. His heartbeat was very weak, they were having a hard time finding his kidneys and his breathing was shallow. He had very little muscle left in his body and was very thin (of course this happened over time). They still questioned what I wanted to do. I already knew, it was a very difficult decision, but I felt I needed to do it for Shadow.