Healthy pets euthanized for convenience, vets say

Procedure is deemed legal, but advocacy groups call for end to owners’ requests

HALIFAX— Animal advocates are calling for an end to the euthanization of healthy pets purely for their owners’ convenience, a practice Canadian veterinarians acknowledge is an unfortunate fact of their profession.

“Unfortunately in law, animals are considered a property so what happens to them is up to what the owner decides,” said Dr. Eric Carnegy, owner and senior veterinarian at the Carnegy Animal Hospital in Halifax.

“We live in a society where there are way more pets or animals looking for homes than there are homes . . . And what do you do with them?”

Veterinarians’ associations say fewer vets are willing to perform convenience euthanasia, but the profession does not prohibit it.

Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) guidelines appear silent on what vets should do when owners ask to have apparently healthy family pets euthanized, although the group does include among its ethical principles a statement that “humane euthanasia of animals is an ethical veterinary procedure.”

Dr. Troy Bourque, president of the CVMA, said he is certain some vets still perform convenience euthanasia.

“I personally don’t know of any veterinarian that would euthanize an animal based on convenience but I’m sure they’re out there,” he said in a phone interview.

Euthanasia is also not prohibited by legislation at the federal and provincial levels.

Camille Labchuk, an animal rights lawyer and executive director of Animal Justice, a Toronto-based advocacy organization, says it should be.

“If a child is in a situation where the parents can no longer care for that child . . . whether the parents have financial issues, mental health issues or they die, the government steps in and the state supports that child,” she said during a phone interview. “Why we wouldn’t do the same thing for vulnerable animals is beyond me.”

Dr. Frank Richardson, president of the Nova Scotia Veterinary Medicine Association, said it is up to vets how to handle conversations about euthanasia.

“I hate to say it and I don’t mean it derogatorily, but in some instances some owners consider them as disposable,” he said. “I’m not saying it doesn’t (happen), but . . . society has changed their outlook on pets . . . that request is happening less and less.”