Pets

[amarkaur]

I'm vegetarian but my kids are not. I care for animals and so adopted 3 rescue cats. One of them is elderly, incontinent, deaf and I think she also has dementia. My mum used to say that killing a cat is a sin. The cat is aged 17 and other than the above, is healthy and happy. I do most of the cleaning but my son helps (daughter doesn't!!). My family say it's time to put he down - is it a sin to put a cat down?

[Friend from the West]

Hari Om,

Feel for you. This is always tough decision. From here, do not know if it is virtuous to end this jivas life in the present. You say, it is healthy and happy besides those other issues you describe. If the cat is eating and drinking and is otherwise healthy and happy, and shows that he wishes to live, I would not put him down. Again, feel for you as this is not easy thing you are dealing with.

Om Namah Shivaya

FFTW

[Indialover]

Dear amarkaur,

I feel with you too and I wish you the strength not to do it.

It‘s common to put pets down, it’s said it’s done so that they don't have to suffer. This not only justifies killing, but makes the doer appear as a characterful and compassionate person.

However man does not choose this compassion for himself, he is free to suffer in hospitals and old people's homes as long as possible.

Once when I ate outside, a fly flew into the sauce. It could not be saved, the wings were too badly affected. With one strike I could have killed the fly. But I didn't, took it out of the sauce and put it under a shrub to die. Pondering whether it was right to make it suffer, I asked a monk in the Krishna temple a few days later. Without any discussion he said: we are not entitled to determine the death of a living being. That was and is also my opinion.

Pranam

[markandeya 108 dasa]

Hare Krsna

If the cat is still happy and healthy, then why do it, and unless it is in extreme pain then its not necessary, let the cat live its natural course, life ( consciousness )connected to mind and senses goes through pain disease and death, we dont have any idea of the subconscious evolution of the cat which is just going naturally through the motions of nature, we often have subjective ideas of what is love and compassion which is mostly sense based or high ideals and often selfish or based on a strange idea of utopia, we tend to see the limited field rather the whole. Its a bit like the asura philosophy of life that we need to reduce the population and wipe out whats ugly and not beneficial for our high minded society, rather than manage nature in accordance with natural laws.

We can also bring euthanasia into the same discussion , which is legal in some places. My wife is a nurse for the elderly and i have followed somethings to do with her job in regards to pain and Dementia and Alzheimers. One report i read a while ago was about altered realities that some get in the Dementia state, externally they may seem mad and not know where they are but there are also other things going on within the subconscious world, not all cases are the same but the ordinary sense perception is not sufficient to know the total reality of what is going on, and on that basis we should do nothing.

Animals have a different perception of death, a more heightened awareness, when a animal is about to die it will accept its fate, many animals live in constant fear of death on a moment to moment basis so when it finally comes they can accept, this maybe seen less in domesticated animals because they will be aware that they have some shelter and refuge from the wild but it will still be programmed into their dna , so we should not lament to something that they themselves will accept, thats our own issue with sentimental consciousness and only wanting what is nice and pleasing to our senses, aka selfishness, even if the intent may seem to be a good and compassionate one.

[amarkaur]

Thank you evryone for your replies. I think also that I should not put the cat down as she is eating etc, is of a good weight and has no health issues. Family are on my back to put her down as I am the only one who cleans her accidents and I guess they feel guilty. I shall take the strength from your replies and stick tomy gut instinct. I've been looking at cat nappies (diapers) on youtube and she's had the first one on today. I hope it works but even if it doesn't, she'll live to her natural end. Thank you again.