Euphemisms for killing
Over the past week the Winnipeg Humane Society has been engaged in a controversial bit of name calling. WHS executive director, Bill McDonald, was quoted as having called no-kill shelters warehouses for animals that aren’t being adopted because nobody wants to adopt them. When asked to apologize McDonald went on the offensive and claimed that “so called” no-kill shelters don’t want to acknowledge that “euthanasia” is a sad fact of life here in Winnipeg. I don’t want to get involved in the debate over who is or isn’t right. I do want to convince everyone to use the correct terminology, though.
Euthanasia means mercy killing. When you euthanize, you end suffering. You put a being out of its misery. Ending the life of a creature that is suffering is rightly called euthanasia. In our society it is deemed humane to euthanize animals for which there is no other way to end suffering.
Ending the life of a healthy, adoptable animal, soley to create space for more animals, IS NOT EUTHANASIA. Ending the life of a sick animal with a treatable illness or condition is not euthanasia. Ending the life of a non-symptomatic animal with an untreatable disease or condition is not euthanasia. These acts are destroying, putting down, or killing. The WHS kills thousands of animals every year in order to make space for more animals. They apply the word euthanasia to this space clearing in an attempt to make it appear humane, because our society does not consider the act of killing animals to create space for more animals to be humane.
Unfortunately, applying incorrect terminology clouds the issue and makes it difficult to follow whatever logic might be in use by the different parties to an argument. The Humane Society calls its space clearing “euthanasia”, thereby implying that it is humane to end the life of an animal that is not suffering. The act may be done humanely, but that does not make it a humane act. The use of the word “euthanasia” is, therefore, inappropriate.
I am asking all concerned to PLEASE FIND ANOTHER EUPHEMISM for what the WHS does when it kills animals to clear space for more animals. Stop clouding the issue by using a word that means something entirely different.
Stumble It!
September 29th, 2009 at 9:14 am
Here here, that was a really good post. You do such great work.
December 4th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
I agree that killing an animal that is healthy is awful, and something I believe no animal shelter willingly wants to do. I do however think that rather then having animal shelters attacking each other when essentially all are working towards the same goal is silly. I believe that the issue falls into the hands of those who do not get their pets spayed or neutered, and the humane society does have a program for those who need financial help to do so. We should be educating the public more about that problem rather than leaving the job to bob barker (drew carry, Price is right). Lets focus on the real issue people!
February 2nd, 2010 at 6:48 pm
I don’t mean to in any way support euthanasia for healthy animals simply because of a lack of room, but the premise here is incorrect. “Euthanasia” is not a euphemism, nor does it exclusively mean a “mercy killing” to end suffering - you can check a dictionary rather than take my word for it. Take a look at the Oxford English Dictionary, for example. Euthanasia simply means a gentle and easy death, or a “good death” to literally translate the Greek. It does not necessarily mean that the the death was to end the suffering of sickness.
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:54 pm
John, even if you apply the expanded definition “good death”, what the WHS does is not euthanasia. There is nothing good about the death provided by the WHS. The word euthanasia is used by “kill shelters” to imply that they are doing something merciful or good. It is, therefore, a euphemism.
February 7th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
It seems that I am not alone in asking that the killing of healthy animals not be called “euthanasia”. I happened upon this blog today: http://withrespecttoanimals.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2010-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=1