"Put down" or "put to sleep"? Killing animals

[sistermagpie]

Alex:
> "Put to sleep" is a ridiculous term meant to make it "OK" to kill 
animals. They just go to sleep. Yeah, right. They are killed. Rather 
nastily. Go to your local pound if you do not know what goes on there. 
They should have happy lives, not a doomed future. Get your animals 
spayed and neutered before they create more little lives that have to 
be snuffed out. And if you want a pet, get one from a shelter, they are 
so thrilled and happy to be with someone who wants them! They are the 
best! Especially cats. Sorry, my personal love of kitties is a bit much.

Magpie:
I still don't see what's so ridiculous about it. Of course everybody 
knows it means they're being killed. And not nastily at all, imo. I sat 
with a dog while they did it not too long ago. They put her to sleep. 
First one tranquilizer so she was gone, then another to put her to 
sleep, and then the one that killed her, with me and my roommate 
petting her the whole time.

The nasty part was the brain tumor causing her constant pain. If you 
prefer the term "put down" or "killed" or "euthanized" I'm fine with 
any of them--I don't use "put to sleep" as a euphamism but because 
that's the term that's most common to me. "Put down" doesn't 
say "killed" any more than put to sleep, after all. She was dead at the 
end any way we say it.

She was spayed, though, of course, and she came from a shelter and I 
think she did have a happy life before that. (Don't know what happened 
before she was abandoned and wound up in the shelter, but she was 
generally happy.) 

-m