A few weeks ago I walked by a bulletin board here at my College campus.  On the board was a note from a student saying they needed to find a new home for their 1-year-old cat.  The student went on to say that if no new home was found the cat would be euthanized.  Someone had written a scathing reply at the bottom of the note saying that maybe the owner should be euthanized, not the pet.  Someone else said that they thought the owner was grossly irresponsible for taking on a 15 to 20 year commitment and ending it after only one year.  I was incensed by both the owner’s note and by the replies.  The owner for opting for only two solutions and with those that replied for condemning the owner without offering other solutions.  Unfortunately all the little phone number strips had been taken, so I was unable to contact this person.  If I had, I would have told the owner that although euthanasia may seem like a quick and easy solution, things don’t always go as planned.

 A number of years ago I worked as an intern in a veterinary hospital.  One day about six months into my internship an old women came in asking if the doctor could take a look at her kitten whose back legs were paralyzed.  I escorted the woman to Exam Room 1.  She placed a small cat carrier on the table and opened it up.  Out popped a fuzzy gray and white head.

His name was Q-Tip.  He had emerald green eyes and an infectious personality.  I fell in love with this cute bundle of energy in a matter of moments.   I took down Q-Tip’s vital information, age 8 weeks, sex male, weight 1-½ pounds, and the fact that his back legs appeared to have no function.  A few minutes later the doctor walked in.  He examined Q-Tip briefly and told his owner in a matter-of-fact tone that there was nothing he could do, and that the kitten should have been put to sleep weeks ago.  I knew of a way Q-Tip could be saved. I had seen several ads for pet prosthetic devices. One of these was a sling that supported the back legs suspended between wheels that connected to the body with a harness. Using this device a paraplegic pet would have nearly the same freedom of movement as a four-legged pet. However the doctor didn’t want to hear any advice from a mere intern.  The doctor silenced me and told the old woman that it was cruel to let the kitten suffer.  I didn’t think Q-tip was suffering, at the time he was playing with my stethoscope.

 The doctor talked the woman into signing the order to euthanize.  After the order is signed the euthanasia must take place.  The doctor loaded a syringe with 40ccs of Euthasol, a bright blue liquid that stops the heart and lungs from working.  Q-Tip could sense something was wrong, his eyes grew wide and his ears flattened against his head. He hissed as the doctor approached him with the syringe.  The doctor placed the needle against the soft fur, pricking the skin, and began to push the lethal fluid into Q-Tip’s veins.  He screamed and tried to get away, but the doctor held him fast.  His eyes fixed on me with a look of absolute betrayal, but he did not die.  The doctor filled another syringe and injected it.  Q-Tip’s screams filled the hospital, and still the tenacious little creature would not die.  The doctor filled a third syringe and a fourth time
On the forth try, Q-Tip, in his last effort to live, bit the doctor.  The doctor in frustration and rage picked up Q-Tip and broke his neck.  The screams stopped.  I looked down at the broken body of the once lively kitten.  His eyes still stared at me accusingly.  I left veterinary medicine that day and never went back.  The memory of Q-tip still haunts me to this day.

 If I could talk to any owner who was thinking of euthanizing their healthy pet, I would tell them about Q-Tip.  I would tell them that according to the Animal Rescue League of Boston, “U.S. animal shelters must euthanize over 13 million unwanted animals every year.  Each day 10,000 humans are born in the U.S., and each day 70,000 puppies and kittens are born. Pet overpopulation is an ever-spreading epidemic in our society.”  The statistics for the number of offspring a pair of cats can produce is staggering.  According to the Animal Rescue League of Boston,  “An unspayed female cat, her mate and all of her offspring, producing two litters per year, with 2.8 surviving kittens per litter can total 11,606,077 cats over a span of nine years.”  These numbers show why it is so very important for owners to be responsible and have their pets spayed or neutered.

 Pets, like people, are living longer lives.  Dogs and cats are often living into their twenties.  Pet geriatrics has become a booming business.  Ads for special diets and arthritis medication for pets now appear on television.  Bird fanciers have an even greater problem.  Parrots and Macaws can live to be 100 years old.  Owners must make arrangements for the care of their birds in the event that the owner should die first. 
Anyone thinking bringing a pet into his or her life should consider the long-term commitment.  It is the responsibility of an owner to see to the needs of a pet through the pet’s entire life cycle.

If the unforeseeable should happen and an owner is forced to give up a pet, there are many alternatives to euthanasia.  Many animal shelters now have a no-kill policy.  Only the terminally ill or mortally wounded are euthanized.  Many not-for-profit organizations are dedicated to finding homes for unwanted cats and dog.  I found over 100 such organizations in less then an hour looking on the Internet. Some of these include:

• Hearts United for Animals
• Best Friends Animal Society
•  Pets Alive No-Kill Animal Shelter
• Texas "No-Kill" Animal Shelters
• Fluffy Net for pets, dogs, cats, no-kill shelters
• Animal Ark No-Kill Animal Shelter
• KittySites.Com - Cat Rescue / Cat Shelters
• Save A Life No-Kill Animal Shelter
• One By One - a No-Kill Cat Shelter
• Purrfect Pals

The list just goes on and on.

 Euthanasia of a healthy pet should never be considered as a last resort.  It should never be considered at all.  I hope with all my heart that the person who was thinking of euthanasia was able to find another solution.  Unwanted cats and dogs don’t ask to be born, they only ask to be loved.

This story is true, it happened 20 years ago in Santa And, California.

The doctor involved in the death of Q-tip has since lost his license to practice Veterinary medicine.