Love to the Grave: In the USA, a completely healthy dog was euthanized to bury it with its owner

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Many pet owners love their animals and would like to never part with them. So one woman from the city of Chesterfield in Virginia, USA, loved her dog Emma and even included it in her will - the woman wanted the dog to be buried with her. However, the mistress died before her favorite.

The owner of the dog, Anita Callop-Thompson, died on March 8 this year at the age of 67, and Emma's cremation was scheduled for March 22 - a perfectly healthy, cheerful dog, a brown Shih Tzu. The dog was taken to one of the shelters for overexposure, where the staff were horrified to learn the fate of Emma.

“We asked them several times to reissue the documents and leave the dog here. We could easily find a new home for her,”says Carrie Jones, the shelter manager. Carrie suggested both to give the dog forever to another family, and "temporarily" - until its natural death, after which the dog would be cremated and taken to the grave of its first owner. "But in the end, they still came on March 22nd and put her to sleep."

In some states of the United States, pets are considered the property of owners, and they may well decide to euthanize their animal, even if it is completely healthy and does not pose a threat to others. “Every time we have to euthanize an animal, it’s hard for us,” says veterinarian Kenny Lucas of his colleague. - On the one hand, we made an oath not to harm, but on the other, there is a law. This is a decision with which we then go home and it weighs on us."

In the state of Virginia, where this story took place, it is not officially allowed to bury people and animals together in city cemeteries. But this prohibition does not apply to private cemeteries, burials at the church and on private plots - and it was this "hole in the law" that Anita, the mistress of the Shih Tzu, took advantage of. From the side of the law, everything was correct, there were no violations. From the point of view of ethics and morality, everyone realized that this was not normal.

This story got into the press and people began to resent the fact that such a possibility still exists. "Everyone should go to jail for this," wrote Rod Ryan, a radio host in Houston. And animal welfare lawyer Amanda Howell also believes that, from a moral point of view, everyone is to blame for this story. It is one thing to bury the ashes of your pet with a person - and it is quite another to put this pet to sleep in order to bury it with a person. “The owner of the dog is primarily to blame,” says Amanda. “But both the veterinarian and the executive services are also guilty. The executor could turn to the judge before blindly executing the will. Usually judges do not support this kind of fulfillment of the last will of a person, even in those states where it is impossible to completely challenge a will."

“We need to remove this law, which declares animals to be personal property,” adds Amanda. "Pets are individuals, not your CD collection."

Read about how in one town in Texas they caught and decided to euthanize a half-dead dog, but not indifferent people intervened, read in See our article on Skye.