To: All Our Wonderful Countryside Facebook Family, From: Matthew Kearns, DVM, Owner of Countryside Animal Hospital First, I would like to share our appreciation for the support we receive through our Facebook page. It is a wonderful form of collaboration and communication with all our clients whom we genuinely consider family. At times, however, Facebook becomes a modality to express misperceptions and inaccuracies without fully understanding the situation and becoming reactive. With this in mind, I feel it necessary to acknowledge certain comments that have recently been posted on our Facebook page. First, I want to say that I have nothing but respect and admiration to any shelter or rescue group that places needy pets with loving individuals and families. They are truly doing God’s work. It is our primary responsibility and priority to proceed with any euthanasia in the most understanding, empathetic and respectful manner possible. Every patient we see is assessed on an individual basis and we have never received any form of negative commentary regarding this process. There are certain, limited cases where aggressive dogs cannot live with humans and there is no choice but to humanely euthanize them. These cases are heartbreaking. At the Countryside Animal Hospital we extensively question owners as to why they wish to euthanize the pet. In cases of aggression there are certain criteria that need to be met before even considering euthanizing. After we question the owners and assess that the dog may attack individuals in the house unprovoked (especially if there are children in the house where a bite could be disfiguring or fatal) we then perform a temperament test ourselves. Should the dog react in an aggressive or violent manner to either unprovoked behaviors, or mild temperament testing we know that there is a danger to humans. Not only danger to members of the family, but significant civil and criminal liability to the owners if a human guest (especially a child) were attacked. It is only at that point would we consider euthanizing a pet for behavioral reasons. This is always a last resort. We welcome contact from the leadership of Last Chance Rescue to discuss this further. We would appreciate any further communication be via phone. Our phone number is 631-473-0942.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 00:51:16 +0000
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