Stop Dogs Being Put Down Now

Why Dogs Should Not Be Put Down

Let’s say you are lost and you can’t find your way back home. Nobody can find out where your home is and you are not able to communicate with them and tell them where your home is. Nobody can find any space for you to stay, so they capture you and murder you. You must agree with me that this is terrible, right, but you probably think that nothing like this would ever happen in real life. But the truth is, it does, it happens all the time. You agree this is wrong, right. You agree that this is a serious problem, right. We must stop this, right. Well this brutal scenario I just described to you does happen all the time. It happens all the time to dogs. Maybe you are not as shocked any more. Maybe to you this does not seem as wrong any more. Why? Why should our life be any more important than a dog’s? Well, you may still not think it is that serious but did you know that 2463 stray dogs were put down between April 2015 and March 2016. Is that fair?

Murder is wrong, right? In the UK, if a human murder’s another human, they are put in prison. Yet, if a dog only bites a human, even for self-defence, they are put down. They are murdered. Is that fair?

We can all agree that murder is wrong, can’t we. For a thinking, breathing, living being to have a life and for that precious existence to be cut short by another thinking, breathing, living being is wrong, right. Well, I’ve got some news for you, a dog is a thinking, breathing, living being and so is a human. To put down a dog is to murder a dog, however hard we try to sweep it under the carpet, and it is happening every day and for some reason, it is considered right. The organisations that put down dogs are serial killers and they are getting away with it.

Perhaps you may argue that when a dog is ill, suffering, dying, maybe the kindest thing to do is to put them down, put them out of their misery. Did the dog tell you it wanted you to do that, did it? If a human is ill, suffering and dying, do you put them down. No, you don’t, even if they want you to, so why should it be any different for dogs? Maybe you will argue that 200,000 people a year are estimated to be bitten by dogs in England and the annual cost of treating injuries by the NHS is £3 million. Maybe you’ll argue that these are 200,000 too many injuries and that the cost is far too much. Well did you know that the NHS spends £3 billion annually on alcohol related injuries. Compare the two figures, see what you can figure. Anyway, can a life really be worth any amount money? Has the human race really lost their humanity?

Maybe, some of you, maybe even a lot of you, though you probably won’t admit it, are still thinking at the back of your heads ‘I don’t really care about this, I’m pretty sure I’m more important than any animal’. I hope you’re not thinking that, but that seems to be the attitude of many human beings. Well, we all evolved from the same animals, we all have the same ancestors, we are all related. So, hold on a minute, why on earth would human beings be more important than all the rest, that doesn’t make much sense. For some reason, many humans think they are more intelligent than animals. Why would that be, just because we don’t really understand the way the other animals live and communicate fully, why should we assume that we are the more intellectual ones. Maybe you will say it is because of all the things we have done, all the buildings you see around you that humans have built, all the organisations we have set up. What you mean is, we are the ones destroying this planet while the others know how to live in harmony with it. We are the ones who have knocked down the trees and destroyed natures beauty to plonk buildings there instead. We are the ones who invented cars and buses and are causing global warming. Why? We upset the earth, we upset the other life on earth and we still manage to upset ourselves. So, how does what I have just described show man as being more intelligent? Even if we were more intelligent, how does that give us the right to hurt other animals? It doesn’t. All beings are equal.

For 30,000 years, dogs have been faithful companions with the human race and have earned the title ‘man’s best friend’. Today they have become one of the most loved and popular pets in households. New brain studies into dog’s brains has even revealed that dogs view their human companions as family and look to us for safety and care more than they do their own kind. They can understand and empathise with the feelings and emotions of man and will ignore those who are unpleasant towards their companions. Over the years, we have discovered dogs even feel emotions like fear, disgust, anger, joy and love and some also argue that they can experience guilt. There have also been many stories of owners abandoning their dogs and the dogs waiting for them for sometimes days on end and not excepting any help or food from strangers. Not only are dogs cherished household pets but also do many jobs for us such as guide dogs, police dogs, sheep dogs, water rescue dogs and many more. Then after this long history of dogs and humans as companions and all that dogs have done for us, what do we do? We put them down. Is that fair?

We should love everybody and have compassion for everybody. To love and have compassion for another being is to put yourself in their place and try to understand how they think and feel. If we can’t learn to have empathy for each other, then we will never be truly happy because of our inability to love one another as we love ourselves. Now we can’t understand exactly how another being thinks or feels but I think it is obvious that dogs don’t like to be carted off and put down, isn’t it? We are the people. We are the ones who can really stop this. What you can do to stop this today is to sign this petition. Together we can stop this brutality. Together we can save lives.

By Z.A. Carr