The figures highlight the burden placed on veterinary surgeons every day when they're asked to euthanise perfectly healthy animals.
Problem behaviours include persistent barking and howling, destructive chewing and inappropriate toileting. Aggressive behaviour, towards both people and other pets, is also a problem, with the PDSA Animal Wellbeing (PAW) report revealing that a third of pet owners have been attacked or bitten by a dog. Such behaviours can cause a breakdown of the human-animal bond, leading to pets being excluded from family life to the detriment of their welfare, relinquished to rehoming centres or euthanised.
The BVA says these figures overwhelmingly show the importance of adequate socialisation of animals at an early age – young animals should safely encounter a variety of people, animals and everyday household sights and sounds in their first few weeks and months of age, beginning at the place where they are born.
Other reasons that owners give their veterinary surgeon for wanting to euthanise a healthy pet included: poor health of the owner (48%), owners moving to accommodation that is unsuitable for their pet (39%), and legal enforcement reasons (32%).
British Veterinary Association President Sean Wensley said: "These figures are stark and are likely to come as a shock to members of the public. But this is the sad reality of a failure to socialise animals from the earliest possible age – a specific time in a puppy’s development which has a significant impact on their future temperament and behaviour. With dogs, this process starts from before a puppy is even seen by a potential owner. In recent months there has been a litany of news stories about the illegal importation, breeding and trading of puppies through puppy farms. This is no way for a family pet to start life and we urge potential owners to thoroughly research where a puppy has been born and reared, using the AWF/RSPCA Puppy contract to help. Then, in the first year of ownership, and especially in the first few weeks, work with your local veterinary practice to ensure your puppy is introduced to everyday sights and sounds, including other people and animals, in a safe and structured way."
Mr Wensley also commented on the impact on vets: "Nobody enters the veterinary profession wanting to euthanise healthy pets, but this is the stressful situation that many vets are facing because of undesirable behaviours in pet animals. Vets will do all they can in these situations to avoid euthanasia, including offering evidence-based behavioural advice, referring to accredited pet behaviourists or assisting with rehoming through reputable rehoming organisations, but sometimes these options are not appropriate, particularly where the behavioural issues make it extremely difficult to rehome the animal. Vets are not required to euthanise healthy animals at an owner’s request, but sometimes, having carefully considered all options and given the circumstances the pet finds themselves in, it may be in an animal’s best interests to do so. Euthanising an animal who could have been a loving pet is the hidden, tragic cost of poor socialisation."
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That's contract killing, not euthanasia
Wynne
Why is an animal with severe mental health issues classified as 'normal and healthy'?-when they are anything but! If one in 5 animals has a mental health issue as the veterinary physiologists now say is the rate-then suggesting it is a fixable behaviour with 'training'is a disservice to the pet, an insult to humans with mental health disorders and puts the veterinary surgeon in a lose lose situation euthanising a supposedly 'healthy'animal. A dog who attacks his owner, who is globally fearfully and highly distructive is not "healthly' and so I am very sad to see British Vet Assoc continue to mislabel animal mental health issues as naughtly behaviour in a healthy pet.
To be fair, I don't think the BVA ever labelled these behaviours as 'naughty', but a serious consequence of poor socialisation. But I take your point, and the second para should have read 'otherwise healthy dogs'.
They are not healthy-otherwise or not.
A severe hormone deficient insulin diabetic needing insulin supplementation daily is not ótherwise healthy.
A severe serotonin deficient aggressive, violent or globally fearful dog needing serotonin and other supplementations is not ótherwise healthy.
That view point is hammered home by Veterinary specialists psychologists here in Australia for the last 30years- I am surprised to see the message has not gotten through to BSAVA hierarchy and so the myth that these dogs need 'training'and trick teaching and 'good manner's persists as the way to solve the issue and hence perhaps why there is such a huge failure rate mentioned in the article.
Many dogs I have seen were well socialised- in fact too much so- the Doggy Daycare set up seems to overwhelm many dogs and taking them out of that large socialisation can massively improve the dog's stress level.
The Quality of Life Questionnaire also gets the specialists here riled up- whilst excellent in many ways to help an owner decide if the time is coming close - the 5 points completely fail the mentally ill 'bad behaved' dog who could score full marks on the questionaire as they can eat and drink and walk and toilet under control and as they wish- and will have more good days than bad- to a non trained observer- yet these pets are in a really bad place.
I am a general practitioner- I euthanise about 1 dog every 5 years for behaviour issues -and whilst they had good body scores re muscle and weight ranges etc-no way could these suffering dogs be classified as ótherwise'healthy and so I was quite ok removing them from their pain and their owners and their in-contacts from the danger these dogs represented.
We dont tell mentally ill humans to go and socialise with other humans and dogs willy nilly, we dont give them 'trick'to perform or commands and teach them 'good manners' as a way to cope with the mental anguish and heavy load and dark world and the daily unbearbale body wide 'pain' so many mental health patients talk of. Shame that we should think that is all 1 in 5 of our dog patients need the same done to them.
Aine Seavers I just meant that in the situation where they have no other diagnosed condition, one might say they were otherwise healthy. But I suppose you're right, you probably wouldn't say that a dog with end stage renal or cardiac failure was 'otherwise healthy'. Interesting point.