A loving owner is best placed to know when their pet is in constant pain and no longer getting any pleasure out of life. Deciding when the time has come to end their suffering is one of the main responsibilities of owning a pet. You shouldn't keep a sick and miserable animal alive just because it makes you feel better about yourself. Unless you know the pet in question and what its quality of life is like, it isn't your place to judge another family's painful decision.

When the animal is clearly suffering, the most loving thing to do is to let them go.

We don't do everything to keep them alive because they do not understand why they're suffering. And for that matter it isn't always responsible to keep very sick and hurting humans alive either, though at least most humans have the capacity to decide for themselves if it's worth it - dogs don't. Keeping a dog alive through deep suffering is selfish and irresponsible.

Ruth, you don'T know how much a dog suffers just from some pics. But you can see how much the owner lives her dog and that this decision was super painful.

I had a dog that we had on medication for continence and she was also having seizures. The pain she suffered day to day leads to a very difficult decision. You don't let your dogs live our their live naturally when you can help ease their pain if you love them. Ruth you should judge you would make the right decision if you were in that situation I hope.

We suddely realized our perfectly happy and healthy dog had a kidney failure and was slowly dying. Our vet told us it can take a week before he would suffer too much, so we decided to wait three days for whole family to come over and say goodbye. During these three days our dog lost all his energy, couldnt walk, eat or drink anymore. We regret so much that we didnt put him down when he was still happy and not suffering that much... Thats why you put down your dog when he is still ok...

Do you think your grandparents would admit to you that they had a wish to die if they did? I would guess for most people concidering suicide, the thought of the pain the loved ones would be in after their loss is what is stopping them in most cases. So they won't tell, just to keep the family happy.

First Value we have to apply in our life is to not be judgemental....That said, the reason why its important to not judge is because you really dont understand the situation, the pain, the sadness.. You are only able to talk like an outsider... This is about being human, and if part of your family is hurting, and wont be getting better, I do believe that anyone who has loved their dogs will be able to say that it hurts to see your loved one in pain.. Your comment is hurtful, and very judgemental...ITs mean...It has not one degree of empathy nor sympathy.... As you start your comment...*I DONT UNDERSTAND*... and yes, you dont understand...

Years ago, our neighbor scheduled a date to have her black Lab put down. She set Valentine's day. We didn't understand how she could do that. Not until a couple of weeks ago when we had to have our dog, Kiwi, put down. Kiwi had become incontinent, wore a diaper, had stopped eating, couldn't drink or eat anything cold any longer because he would vomit. He went from 55 lbs to 38 and was going deaf and blind. He loved going in the cold basement, but that became impossible. He loved my husband and had to be carried up and down the stairs and outside to relieve himself. Kiwi, because he was blind and deaf, did NOT want to be touched. He bit me once when I tried to get his hair away from his mouth. That one wasn't bad. My husband was the only person who could carry Kiwi and he had been staying home as long as he could from work just to help Kiwi. Kiwi would snap at me and even at 38 lbs, I couldn't move him, lift him or carry him, but one day I had to get him up from the basement. I was bare

being put down just before they start to show the signs of suffering is what a responsible pet owner does..pets actually get it better than humans...l had to watch my father die for a week in hospital...they put the dying patient in a room, they are not drip fed or given water they are left there to slowly starve to death whilst administering pain killers when required...we dont make our pets go through that but we have to make our dying family members do it..the above picture does not show how energetic the dog was, and being energetic does not mean they still have time..the owner said the pain meds were no longer working..the dog probably had an inkling that something was coming to an end and was reveling in its last day on earth...

this might sound cruel but we are keeping them alive when in the wild they would just die.

i feel the same, ruth. this dog seems tired, but happy. she walks, plays with other dogs, smiles. i don't know the situation, but she seems to happy to be put down.

sorry - so late to the game. My cat died in my arms at the age of 90 - I held her close for about 8 hours as she slipped away. It was the worst experience of my life - and I wish - to this day - I had the strength and courage to let her go earlier. If i could go back in time, I would have taken her straight to the vet and let her go to sleep the night before she died when I knew she was going. I don't think her passing was comfortable for her, I know she was scared every time she heard a loud noise - but she could not move she was so weak. I felt her heart stop - it was truly awful. I would not wish this upon anyone. Let your animals go peacefully and with the abundance of love you feel for them. This owner did a beautiful thing - I know it's hard to comprehend - but she absolutely did the right thing. Look her in the last picture - her heart is absolutely broken. That's love right there.

Ruth, do you own a pet?

Some people believe that their pets are going to a "better place" and they are doing them a favour. I agree with you mostly, we just put our cat to sleep, but she was days if not hours from going on her own. She couldn't walk any more, eat or drink. I think some people would consider how long we kept her alive to be cruel, but seeing as I believe when you die you are simply gone for ME some life is better than no life. we also have two 80lbs dogs and I'm not sure when we get to that point if it will be as easy to put it off so long. A 4lbs cat is easy to handle and carry around, an 80lbs dog isn't.

I agree with you!

When it was time to let our old girl go a few years ago we asked the vet to come over. She had lost use of both her limbs on one side. She was tired and in pain. We scheduled the vet visit for Monday and doted on her that weekend, gave her all kinds of fast food that we'd normally not let her eat. Saying goodbye was hard, but I'm glad she didn't have to ride the car to the vet on her last day. She hated the car and the vet - it would have given her so much stress. :(

We had a cat with liver failure. He stopped eating, stopped wanting to go outside, and hid a lot. It was a horrible day when the vet told us we had to make the choice, but he was going to die. At least we got the chance, like this family, to say goodbye. They let us out the back door, because we were all in tears, and none of us (vet included) wanted to upset the other pet owners.

Marika, eight years later and I remember the drive to the vets. It's a memory that never goes away. Sometimes i wish it would.