Coping with the choice to euthanize your pet
Chances are, now that you have decided to euthanize your pet, you are going through many different emotions ranging from anger to guilt to sadness. While a humane death is chosen to eliminate your pet's suffering, it is only natural for you to experience a lot of emotional pain.
When a pet is suffering from a serious medical problem or combination of problems, medical treatment can't always help. Because veterinarians can only do so much, euthanasia is often the most humane choice to end a pet's suffering. If you're feeling like a bad pet owner for doing this, after all your pet has done to make your life better, you should remember that a little guilt is normal at first. You should also remember the good life you provided for your pet. No one else could have loved your pet like you did. More than likely, you went out of your way to be sure your pet was happy. Not only did you give your pet food and shelter, but you also provided love and attention--things pets crave. Because you cared so much about your pet, not only did you give it a happy life but a humane and dignified ending. After it's all over, your pet will be at rest and no longer suffering--and you'll have a lifetime of good memories.
Coping with euthanizing a pet with behavioral problems
Choosing to euthanize a pet because of a behavioral problem is one of the most difficult choices a caring pet owner will ever face. If the pet is suffering, the decision may be hard, but at least you know you are bringing an end to its pain. To help an owner make this kind of decision, a veterinarian once put it this way...
"You and your pet have shared a very special bond. Now, because of its behavior problem, you find yourself being upset with your pet. Of course you try not to let your upset show, because you don't want your pet to know that you're unhappy with him. But we often forget how sensitive pets are to our feelings. The fact is, if you're upset with your pet--no matter how hard you try to hide it--the pet knows it. And if you're upset because of an unresolvable behavior problem, the pet knows you're upset but has no idea why. What does this do to the special bond between the two of you? It begins to break down this bond, as the pet no longer understands your feelings toward him. The longer the upset continues, the more the bond erodes...until it's gone altogether. At what point do you want to preserve what is left of the bond between you and allow the pet a humane end to his life?"
When you have made the decision to euthanize your pet because it has unresolvable behavioral problems, you may be feeling that it doesn't seem fair that you had to do this to your pet. This feeling of guilt is quite natural and should be expected. At a time like this, however, it is important to remember that you cared enough to try to correct the problem but, by no fault of your own, the problem just couldn't be fixed.
Now that is over and you have decided on euthanasia, you can ease your guilt by knowing that you made the right choice. You may be thinking that you should have given the pet a chance by putting it up for adoption. To be realistic, however, the new owner might not have been as patient as you were with the problem your pet had. If the new owner would have been one who would continually use punishment for something the pet did, would that really have made the pet's life a good one? Probably not. At least this way your pet had a good life with you, a caring owner who loved him or her enough to do the humane thing.