What Do Vets Really Think About Us and Our Pets?

Everyone has an opinion about what’s the best or worst for your animal (especially on Reddit). Should you be cooking for your cat? When is it okay to euthanize a dog for bad behavior? Which shelters are the humane ones again? We asked animal doctors what they really think about some of the most hot-button questions in pet care.

Are kill shelters actually so bad?

This is not a term that I love. I prefer “open-admissions shelters.” Most no-kill shelters that decide they really want to limit euthanasia also limit the animals coming in through the door. They are choosing to take healthier, better-behaved animals, and they are denying entry to animals that are biting people or have diseases that can’t be treated. Generally speaking, if a shelter takes in animals no matter the circumstances, it will always have higher euthanasia rates because it takes in animals that need euthanasia. To say no-kill is better — that’s not necessarily true. Because now you’re denying euthanasia to animals when that may actually be the best treatment plan for them. When an animal is truly suffering and there aren’t any other options for them, to make them suffer until they die is not ethical. There are ways of managing pain and suffering, but those are really intense, expensive, and time-intensive. Most of the time, animal shelters are not doing that because they don’t have the resources. They’re just allowing animals to become sick and to deteriorate. That is no-kill. And I don’t think that that’s good. It’s totally a marketing thing, an ethics-branding thing. — Dr. Lena DeTar

Is it okay to put my dog in a crate?

The most important thing to remember is that to use a crate successfully, you want to make it the dog’s favorite place in the world. You create a safe place. Especially for a fearful dog, that’s a really important thing to have.

If the dog looks at the crate as a positive place, it isn’t an imprisonment. You can look at their body language. Do they go in there on their own? Do they have their tail between their legs? If a dog is stressed, they won’t eat. If you toss a treat in there and they don’t eat it, that’s telling you something.

The worst is to put the crate down in the basement where no one’s around. Put it in the kitchen or living room where there’s lots of activity. You don’t want the crate to be a departure cue. When I’ve done it with my dogs, I’ve done it when I can be home with them. And you don’t want to force the dog into the crate — that’s the key. Some dogs just won’t adjust to a crate or a room. — Dr. Susan Krebsbach

In This Issue

Is My Cat a Prisoner?

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Whose needs come first at the vet — my pet’s or mine?

Veterinarians are servants to two masters. We have a patient, and we have a client, and fairly often, those interests do not align. Many years ago, my mentor, the bioethicist Bernard Rollin, painted two different models of veterinary practice. There was what he referred to as the pediatrician model, which is how most members of society perceive veterinarians — as patient advocates. But he also saw veterinary practice as what he referred to as the garage-mechanic model. And in that model, the veterinarian simply says, “Here are the options for what you can do with your animal, which is property according to the law. So go ahead and tell me what you want and I’ll do it.”

In the U.K., the code of conduct for veterinary surgeons makes quite clear that animal welfare is a veterinarian’s first priority, but American codes of conduct do not spell that out. Obstacle two is that veterinarians are hired by humans and paid by humans, not by animals. You have people who are economically dependent on satisfying the human being, and that naturally would lead to a circumstance where the veterinarian does not want to seem confrontational.

Years ago, I was faced with a circumstance where I believe I made the wrong decision. I had been seeing a husband and wife client who owned multiple Chihuahuas, and I was taking care of two of them with chronic medical conditions. The next time I saw the dogs, it was only the husband. In that visit, he relayed that he had lost his wife to cancer. And of course, I expressed my condolences, but each time I saw him subsequently, his capacity to care for those dogs had clearly been declining. On one occasion, he brought two dogs in with him. He told me he was living in a van, he’d lost his job, and he couldn’t afford to take care of all of the dogs he had. Two of his dogs were ten years of age and older, and he wanted me to euthanize them humanely so that their last memory of life is being with him. He didn’t want to give the dogs to a shelter. So I did it, and I regret it to this day. Euthanasia is intended to benefit the recipient of the death. If you’re not benefiting the recipient of the death, then that’s not really euthanasia. Did either of those two dogs have to have their lives ended? No, they didn’t have to. — Dr. Barry Kipperman

When is it okay to euthanize a problem dog?

Having worked in shelters, I’ve seen very dangerous dogs that should not be released to the public. Once, there was a dog that was impounded by animal control because he had bitten a small child in the face. This dog was unhandleable. But the owner found a rescue that said it would be willing to take the dog. He went to the kennel, handed the leash to the lady from the rescue, then drove off. Two minutes later, she came in and said, “You’re gonna have to quarantine this dog. He just bit me.” The next thing out of her mouth was, “It’s not his fault. I dropped my phone.” I think she was defending the fact that this dog had just bit her; it was her way of saying, “It’s okay, don’t euthanize him.” But it’s not normal dog behavior to bite you because you dropped your phone.

A dog like that is never going to be trustworthy. There’s no amount of training that will protect you from it. And there are not a lot of places for it to go — I don’t believe in sanctuaries for dogs because I think a lot of the time, they just turn into hoarding situations or a situation where an animal’s living in a cage for the rest of its life. But some rescue people are so blinded to the possibility that an animal could be aggressive enough that they are a danger to society. In the end, he was euthanized. — Dr. Heather Reeder

Do “easy” pets exist?

There’s this perception that getting a lizard or a bird is going to be cool and maybe it will be easier to take care of than a dog or a cat. Almost all of the health concerns we see in those exotic species happen because they’re not being cared for appropriately at home. One of the most common things I see in bearded dragons, leopard geckos, some of these little lizards, is something called metabolic bone disease. They don’t have appropriate vitamin D, as in they’re not getting the appropriate light. They basically just turn into these little cartilaginous creatures because they don’t have enough calcium to support their bones anymore. It’s really sad. They’ll go into multisystem organ failure. It’s 100 percent preventable if you just manage them appropriately. — Dr. Elaine Sheikh

Isn’t cooking for your pet the right and healthy thing to do?

No one’s going to recommend that you home-cook for your pet, unless under supervision of a veterinary nutritionist. People are so scared of commercial dog food and big pharma, because they’re owned by these huge companies. They feel like it’s toxic and giving their pet cancer and all these things. But pet food is really the best thing to feed your pet. Recently, I saw a cat. The owner was cooking for her cat because she did her own internet research. The cat came to me for a femur fracture with no reported history of trauma. She swore up and down that the cat had never had any trauma. I did full bloodwork because I was highly suspicious of a nutritional deficiency. And it confirmed that the cat had major electrolyte derangements and hypocalcemia that led to its fracture. The fracture was extremely difficult to repair in surgery because the bone was almost like butter. Still, this woman cared so much for her cat, and she just didn’t realize she was doing something wrong. — Dr. Carly Fox

Is My Cat a Prisoner? And other ethical questions about pets like …

➭ Are We Forcing Our Pets to Live Too Long?
➭ Am I a Terrible Pet Parent?
➭ Why Did I Stop Loving My Cat When I Had a Baby?
➭ I Am Not My Animal’s Owner. So What Am I?
➭ Was I Capable of Killing My Cat for Bad Behavior?
➭ Should I Give My Terrier ‘Experiences’?
➭ Is There Such a Thing As a Good Fishbowl?
➭ Do Runaway Dogs Deserve to Be Free?
➭ Are We Lying to Ourselves About Emotional-Support Animals?
➭ Does My Dog Hate Bushwick?
➭ How Agonizing Is It to Be a Pug?