I came across this column today in the New York Times. It's from the ethicist.
Recently, I was on a FaceTime call with a friend I met through social media who is in the same profession as I am. Through the pandemic, we’ve brainstormed and been there for each other. So I was shocked when — via FaceTime — I was informed that my friend’s dog had bitten a few people, and so my friend felt it was best to put the dog down. But they wanted to do it themselves. They thought that going to the vet and having the vet “hold the dog down” would be inhumane. Without even thinking what the answer might be, I said: “Wait! How do you put your own dog down?” Silence. And then they said, “A gun.”
They admitted to me that they shot their own dog and buried it in a grave they dug. I couldn’t believe this. Is this legal? Is this morally OK? To me, it’s murder! They’re asking for sympathy on social media saying their loving family dog had to be “put down,” and I hate that I’m carrying this knowledge that the dog was shot and buried by its “loving” owner. What do I do? Name Withheld
The purpose of a child, the Russian thinker Alexander Herzen suggested in his 1849 dialogue-essay “Consolatio,” is to be a child — to play, to enjoy itself, to be itself. Because children, in time, do come of age, we are tempted to think that the final aim of a child is, precisely, to come of age, gaining an adult’s plans and projects, and this, he noted, is a confusion. We are spared such confusions when it comes to dogs, because they have no long-term plans or projects: In the familiar formula, the life in their days matters more than the days in their life.
A dog that repeatedly bites people — we’re not talking about a “soft mouth” nip but a bite that inflicts injury and, typically, scars — can be legally categorized as dangerous. (Dog bites are a main reason children end up in the E.R.) What this designation entails depends on the state or municipality. A so-called dangerous dog may be required to wear a muzzle when not confined; its owner may be required to purchase a large liability-insurance policy; or, depending on statutes and circumstances, a court may simply order the dog to be euthanized. An owner can enlist the services of a behaviorist for a dog with a history of biting, but with no guarantee of success. And an owner may be subject to criminal and civil liability for injuries inflicted by the dog — resulting in the sort of penalties and payment of damages that could interfere with whatever plans and projects an owner has for herself or her family.
You’re clearly outraged, however, not only by the fact that the dog was killed but also by the way it was killed. Your friend perhaps figured that a bullet to the head, through cavitation and direct tissue destruction, would result in instantaneous oblivion, and sought to spare the creature a possibly more traumatic experience. Here’s someone who, unlike you, knows this dog intimately — someone who may have pictured how the dog would have responded to being crated up, brought to a veterinary clinic (which might have had unpleasant associations for the animal) and restrained while a nitrile-gloved clinician pushed a needle into it. Was the choice so mad? Why do you view the family’s anguish as illegitimate simply because the creature was put down at home, as animals often used to be?
We should all be concerned about animal cruelty, and dogs, with their gift for bonding with humans, will elicit your (and my) tenderest feelings. I do hope your concern extends to the immense suffering caused by factory farming, not to mention the immense suffering we routinely impose on mammals of our own species. The situation you describe is painful and fraught. Before you condemn your friend, though, be sure that your own actions and attitudes would withstand judgment.
A final note. Grieving a dog’s death, we grieve, first, our loss: the absence of a companion. Grieving the death of a person — a friend, a lover, a sibling, a parent — we grieve, first, their loss: their absence from the unfurling discoveries, desires, commitments and experiences that make up our shared world. That shared world works better when we try hard to understand one another. Summarily judging others as unworthy of sympathy impedes what should be a common goal: a truly humane society.
“The more you can increase fear of drugs, crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all of the people.”
― Noam Chomsky
Posting Content © 2024 TC Talks Holdings LP.
