The Humane Way for Animals to Pass Away

I receive CBS news updates on my Twitter account.  Those notifications are also sent to my phone.  I do this due to the fact that I normally don't have the time to watch television or sit around and read the news online or in the paper.  This week, my attention was drawn to a particular story that was out of the ordinary to what I normally receive.  The story was about a puppy that was "put to sleep" but ended up surviving.  The puppy was one of five stray dogs in the Oklahoma City area that Sulpher animal control officer Scott Prall put to sleep on Friday of last week.  He thought he put this dog to sleep at least.  However, Saturday morning he went out to find the trash bin with dead dogs in it to have an alive dog in it.   http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/03/earlyshow/living/petplanet/main20038675.shtml?tag=pop

After reading this article it made me start thinking about what is exactly the "humane" way to put animals down.  My husband is a total country boy, and he feels that nothing is a better option that a "bullet to the head."  However, I could NEVER let him do that to one of our pets.  I always was for putting animals to sleep, but this is the second story like this that I have heard of in the past year.  With that being said, it made me start thinking about how I would want my animals to pass on if I was put in the situation.  I know that the animals must suffer from a certain amount of pain with any option given when it comes to their passing.  However, I feel for myself, that I would want to give my own pets some kind of pain relievers, and just make their passing as comfortable as possible.  I would not want any kind of aid.  I want them to pass away on their own.  I probably feel this way due to the enormous place in my heart that I have for animals.  Noone else probably agrees with my option, but this is my personal decision that I have came to as a result of reading this article this past week.