CHANGE MY MIND: Ethics of keeping an old dog alive at the expense of others
Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2019 12:04 pm
Is it really ethical to keep an older dog alive, not just for his sake, but at the expense of other animals' lives, too?
As an example:
Take a dog that I know; he's 18 years old, has been on medication for years (since he was 10- medication that has been tested on animals, surely), and is now taking 10 different medications each day, and most recently has had multiple surgeries, therapy multiple times a week, acupuncture multiple times a week and vet appointments multiple times a month. This dog can barely walk, sleeps all day, there's a huge lack of interaction, has accidents all day long (which brings me to another thought of the time/inconvenience spent cleaning up all day after the dog). It seems to me that the dog is being kept alive because of the people, which I think is usually the case.
I can't help but to think that the $50,000+ that has been spent on this dog in the last couple years alone could have helped so many other lives who have a lifetime ahead of them, or the ideology that helping more animals is more ethical than helping just one who doesn't have much life left/who wouldn't have survived without all of these extra, lavish, expensive things keeping him alive. I also can't help but to think that all of the medications he has been on for years (and now the 10+ different medications he is on) have all contributed to a lot of animal testing (I assume, as most are).
Is this really worth it, at the expense of all these other animals, who have been tested on or animals who are young/interactive and have a life ahead of them, who could have been helped with that money, instead?
Maybe I'm biased because it's not happening to my own animal, maybe I'm desensitized to dogs in general, or maybe I'm just being insensitive, but I'd like to get other people to weigh in on this topic and see if people can change my mind, because it's really inconvenient to be annoyed about this scenario.
I don't want *any* animal to die. I also replaced the idea of this dog with a cat, which is my absolute favorite animal, and my ideology has not changed. So, it's safe to say that, although dogs are one of my least favorite animal, my opinions don't seem to be based on the fact that this is a dog we are talking about. I don't think one old, non-interactive dog being kept alive at the expense of other animals is ethical.
As an example:
Take a dog that I know; he's 18 years old, has been on medication for years (since he was 10- medication that has been tested on animals, surely), and is now taking 10 different medications each day, and most recently has had multiple surgeries, therapy multiple times a week, acupuncture multiple times a week and vet appointments multiple times a month. This dog can barely walk, sleeps all day, there's a huge lack of interaction, has accidents all day long (which brings me to another thought of the time/inconvenience spent cleaning up all day after the dog). It seems to me that the dog is being kept alive because of the people, which I think is usually the case.
I can't help but to think that the $50,000+ that has been spent on this dog in the last couple years alone could have helped so many other lives who have a lifetime ahead of them, or the ideology that helping more animals is more ethical than helping just one who doesn't have much life left/who wouldn't have survived without all of these extra, lavish, expensive things keeping him alive. I also can't help but to think that all of the medications he has been on for years (and now the 10+ different medications he is on) have all contributed to a lot of animal testing (I assume, as most are).
Is this really worth it, at the expense of all these other animals, who have been tested on or animals who are young/interactive and have a life ahead of them, who could have been helped with that money, instead?
Maybe I'm biased because it's not happening to my own animal, maybe I'm desensitized to dogs in general, or maybe I'm just being insensitive, but I'd like to get other people to weigh in on this topic and see if people can change my mind, because it's really inconvenient to be annoyed about this scenario.
I don't want *any* animal to die. I also replaced the idea of this dog with a cat, which is my absolute favorite animal, and my ideology has not changed. So, it's safe to say that, although dogs are one of my least favorite animal, my opinions don't seem to be based on the fact that this is a dog we are talking about. I don't think one old, non-interactive dog being kept alive at the expense of other animals is ethical.