Catholic Friend Afraid to Put Her Dog to Sleep and It Is Suffering

she needs to speak to her priest ASAP... I can tell you that my priest has gone with parishioners to the vet to provide comfort as they ended their animal's suffering. it is wrong to allow an animal to suffer with no hope of improvement.

A dog is not a human being. Teachings about euthanasia and other life issues do not apply to non-human animals. (I am a cradle Catholic). There is no sin in putting the dog to sleep. It is an animal and there are no merits to its suffering. At this point, the merciful path is to put the dog to sleep.

Good heavens. That poor dog. PLEASE call her priest or go over to the church and talk to him. Beg him to tell her it's okay. Three months. I'd feel so guilty making an animal suffer like this that I would feel like it's a sin to make him live like that.

It seems more sinful to me to watch for 3 months as a loved pet suffers.

Euthansia is a mercy, not a sin. I only wish people could legally ask it for themselves.

Not sure what being Catholic has to do with this. It is not a sin or even looked down on to put a suffering animal to sleep.

According to Catholic teachings we are the only creatures that have souls so no rule that applies to humans applies to animals.

*expects cat to have peed on my pillow today for that edit*

Your friend needs to talk to her priest who, I'm sure, speaks Spanish. I don't think that the Catholic church considers such a situation sinful, but she needs to hear it from her priest.

That said, I understand where she's probably coming from. I have a difficult time, too, and when a pet is ill or injured I always hope I won't have to make the decision. I don't want to euthanize even a pet for what actually turn out to be reasons of convenience for me. And even when that's obviously not the case, I don't like it. My vet knows not to talk about "quality of life" with me; it's either "Let's see what else we can do to help this problem," or, "It's time."

I'm also Catholic and have had to put animals to sleep. I agree with the others. It is not a sin, and talking to her priest should ease her mind, although I know her heart will still hurt. I'm so sorry she is going through this.

I just went through the same thing about 2 weeks ago with my own dog. Being catholic and seeing my dog suffering was emotional torture so I know how your friend feels. I researched it and found out that it is not a sin. I send her my prayers.

http://stmichaelsociety.com/2011/07/11/dear-gabby-euthani...

what a sad situation. i understand the catholic church teaches (to my disgust) that animals don't have souls, and therefore it's no biggie to euthanize them. i love that your friend, while catholic, understands that her beloved dog DOES have a soul, and therefore if she truly abides by her church's teachings to an extent that few do, she is between a rock and a hard place.
i don't think the question 'is it sin or euthanasia?' is applicable. to most of us it's a no-brainer- it's no sin to help a beloved animal out of pain and suffering it doesn't understand. by domesticating animals we have taken any element of choice out of the equation for them, and bear the responsibility, and moral guilt if it applies, ourselves.
so IF a person believes that taking a soul out of this world before 'god has done it' is a sin, and IF that person also believes their animals have souls, the dilemma is NOT a no-brainer- it's very difficult indeed.
but i hope she does the right thing by this poor, suffering dog. even if it means she takes a moral hit by her religion's teachings.
khairete
S.

Someone needs to step in...

It's possible she thinks it's a sin because the Catholic Church teaches against euthanasia in humans. You will often hear Catholics say something along the lines of.

"All life is sacred from womb to tomb."
"natural conception to natural death"

It has always been my understanding that the Catholic Church views animals as inferior to humans. Therefore the euthanasia of an animal is not considered sinful.

Not sure my explanation is terribly helpful, but I would have to agree that this is not a sin.

Have her talk to her priest...he should be able to counsel her on the right decision. From what I understand God gave us dominion over the animals and charge of their care...and I only feel it is our responsibility to end their suffering when there is no hope for recovery.

Good luck!!

I've been Catholic over 40 years and have never heard of this. My mom who is more Catholic than the Pope worked with lab animals at a Catholic university almost every summer for a decade and they definitely euthanized the ill ones.

Poor baby. I'd say she can't do this. It's a sad thing baby is in pain but before modern vets people would either put them down themselves or they'd linger and eventually pass on their own. It's been 3 months and if it was going to be healed he'd be up and running by now.

Perhaps if you venture upon the idea of sometimes death is healing.

I was reading a trashy romance novel one time about 3 angels named Shirley, Goodness, and Mercy...yes, a cute play on names and virtues.

Anyway, they were given an assignment to come to earth and "help" some people meet their mates, that they were unhappy and needed to move towards what was planned for them.

The store goes along as it should of course. There is this man who lost his wife and he's angry at God and another man who's lost his wife too but he's okay. They were talking at one point and the one man asks the other why he's not angry with God.

This other man basically said that God didn't give his wife cancer, her body made it, they fought the disease in every way possible and prayed for healing. He finally realized that by dying she was finally able to be fully healed and never feel pain again.

So, moral of the story, sometimes the only way to be healed is to move on to that perfect existence when all is made whole and perfect.

Perhaps, if she reads, you could find the series for her at an old used book store. I don't know if they'd be printed in Spanish though. Perhaps she could learn to read English if she had them and her hubby helped her.

http://debbiemacomber.com/books/shirley-goodness-and-mercy

All dogs (and cats, etc) go to heaven!
Sounds like hers needs to go there and not suffer in this life anymore.
I believe animals have souls - but having a soul doesn't mean that anyone should have to suffer.
For that matter if a person is dying and in horrible pain and they want to end their life I think they should be allowed to do so.
Nothing is immortal.
Mortality and having to deal with it is not a sin as far as I'm concerned.

Animals are not human. They may understand some words, but not enough to ask them how they feel and what are their wishes.

I would never want any animal to suffer because of my needs.
If this dog were in the wild he would lie down and wait to die. That would be sad.

But to allow this dog to be put down is torture. The dog will just feel like he is falling asleep and no more suffering. Surely there is someone that speaks her language that can speak with her.

I grew up Catholic. It is not a sin to put this poor dog out of his misery as
the religion views animal differently from humans.

Now go to dictionary.com & use the translator tab so you can write the words having them translated into Spanish. Then print it out & give it to her. Tell her how God doesn't want the dog to suffer, it's different to
euthanize animals than humans etc.

My mother and step father have two dogs one which has some strange ailment lately can't walk and they have taken it to vets. In the past they didn't hesitate to put dogs to sleep so why not now? Well, now they are in their eighties (parents) and perhaps there is something symbolic about putting them to sleep that didn't exist before that they relate to. They are Catholic but that didn't stop them. Wondering how old this woman is because perhaps it is tied into her own aging issues. Just rambling here.

I am Catholic. I dont mean to be disrespectful to your friend but she sounds silly. Obviously the animal is pain the animal needs to be put down. Common sense seems to be lacking.

I'm Catholic too, and I'll be flat out honest... I think it's a sin to drag out that poor, poor dog's misery. Euthanasia would be the kindest, most loving thing to do. It's the opposite of sin.