Putting Down Animals
January 18th, 2007 by Jim VDuring the last couple of years, a neighboring sheep farmer, usually through my children, has asked me to come to his farm to put down sick sheep. Typically I just assumed that the owner had hired help do everything and that I was just a convenient person to call on (even though I wasn’t getting paid). Most of the time these requests were made at a time when I was busy, so only once did I actually go to put down a sheep – actually a small lamb. I and two of my children went to the neighbor’s farm with the intent that we would actually put down the lamb – not exactly my favorite job. We made our way to the greenhouse barn where the lamb was being kept and discovered a small lively lamb that had an injury to the knee joint on one front leg. The joint had been broken. The skin was broken so that you could see down into the bone and the cartilage between the bones. We all immediately decided that this lamb should not be put down yet. We poured some garlic tincture into the wound, bandaged it up and then created a splint. In the next few weeks, workers at the farm periodically changed the dressing and the lamb’s leg healed. Her leg was a little crooked, but, according to my children, she recovered so well that it was difficult to pick her out from a group of sheep. It has been well over a year since we splinted the lamb’s leg and as far as my children know, she has grown up into a productive, healthy ewe.
Sometime after splinting the lamb’s leg, I received a call from a neighbor. The conversation went something like this,
Neighbor: Jim, I have a favor to ask of you.
Me: Yah, Okay, What is it?
Neighbor: I have a calf that needs to be put down. Could you come put it down?
Me: Sure (meanwhile I am thinking, “Me?â€)
As I am getting ready to go to my neighbor’s place, I start asking my wife, “Why does everyone want me to put down their animals? Why do I have two neighbors asking me to put down their animals? Do I come across as the blood-thirsty type?†I gathered up my .22 caliber rifle and a knife and walked the quarter of a mile or so to the neighbor’s barn. There he shows me a Holstein bull calf which does not have an anus. He told me that he just could not do the deed. I was somewhat surprised since he grew up on a farm. He took the calf out of the barn and I put a round between its eyes, hoping that I would hit the spot that drops them immediately. Unfortunately I did not hit the exact right spot and so had to shoot it again. At this point it looked like the calf was dead and I walked back home, thankful that I had completed this deed. As I walked into the house, the neighbor called on the telephone a second time, “The calf is still alive can you come backâ€. Now I am thinking “Oh, oh – this not good. I better quick go back and finish the job.†So I quickly went back and completed the job.
Once back home I started wondering what is happening here. As we talked this over as a family, we decided that in our society the distinction between animals and humans has been blurred so much that it makes it more difficult to put an animal down. Animals were put here for our use and benefit. Animals were not created in the image of God as humans were. As Good Farmer John pointed out, they are not our friends. They are not relatives either.
My wife now says that “real farmers put down their own animals.â€
Jim V
January 18th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
I’m with you Jim…. well, kinda….. You know, I’ve slaughtered or put down over 200 animals, and on butchering day I still don’t feel good about it until I do the first one. I had a goat go down recently, and just couldn’t shoot the little gal until I was sure she wouldn’t turn around. Just hated doing it. I actually paid a vet a couple of years ago to put down our old dog because I was such a wimp.
Anyway, when it comes time to “Do the deed”, I always tell myself basically what your wife says, except its more like “Alright Brad, you wanted to get into this, so now you have to follow through with the bad parts too.
So basically all that rambling to say. I hear and believe what your saying, but I still get a case of the heevie jeebies when I have to do it
Another good post!
Have a GREAT day,
Brad
January 18th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Brad,
I also have to work myself up to put an animal down. I also hate stuff like dehorning. I have a jersey heifer calf that probably should be dehorned, but I always seem to be able to procrastinate. My kids keep asking when we are going to dehorn her.
Jim V
January 18th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
OK. Let me say up front: I’m a city girl through and through. Please forgive me. I love animals and believe in treating them well. But, I also don’t want to see an animal suffer needlessly. So when I found a young owl outside my house on the ground that had been injured I thought the right thing to do would be to put it out of its misery. I obseved it for a while laying face down on the ground with its wings slightly spread open. It was having a hard time breathing and looked as though it had a broken wing. I went to get the shovel. But when I came back I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I decided to give the owl a little while longer watching from afar in case some predator showed up (my tomcat). To my astonishment about a half an hour later the bird picked itself up, fluffed it feathers back in order and flew to a nearby tree. It stayed there a couple of hours before leaving. Apparently it just had the wind knocked out of it or something. I was sure glad I didn’t whack it with the shovel. I had only hesitated on killing it because I wanted to be sure and there was no one else there to consult with. Maybe that’s the case with your neighbors, they want an experienced second opinion. Maybe you can say something like “Yep, Fred, I agree, for the sake of this animal it’s best if we put it down. Do you need me to do it for you or do you feel that you need to take care of it?” That way you are gently hinting that its their animal and therefore their responsibility while still being supportive.
January 18th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
As a small dairy farmer I’ve noticed that we tend to establish a close relationship with our 40 “girls”. We go above and beyond in our efforts to save animals and on occasion make our vet scratch his head! But on a dairy farm the objective is to keep the cows alive and productive as long as possible so we feel justified in going that extra mile! And, it’s a heart breaker to lose a cow!
January 18th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Amy,
It can be very difficult to assess whether an animal will live or not. It can be a very tough decision. I tend to error on the side of letting the animal live and sometimes the sheep farmer has put down sheep that I would have tried to nurse along longer. It is possible that these neighbors wanted another opinion, although they are definitely not getting an expert when they call me. The neighbor with the calf had already talked with a veterinarian and the veterinarian had told him to put the calf down. You are right about gently hinting that maybe they should take care of it. I’ll try this next time.
Jim