Craig Street Cats
  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
    • Contact Us
  • Donate
    • Keep Them Warm
    • Corporate Sponsorship
    • Our Wish List
    • Hold Your Own Event
  • Adopt
    • Adoption Events
  • Volunteer
    • Summer Internship
  • Events
    • Founder's Day
    • Thanksgiving Tart Sale
    • Christmas for the Critters
    • Holiday Shopping Event
    • Feral Cat Day Festivities
    • Cupcakes for Kittens
  • Programs and Policies
    • Adoption Centre
    • Cat Boarding Program
    • Colony Manager Program
    • Community Trappers
    • FIV / FeLV
    • Why TNR
    • Privacy
  • Pet Friendly Housing
  • Jobs at CSC

Euphemisms for Killing

1/8/2013

 
Originally published on September 28, 2009.

Over the past week (Sept. 2009) 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, however, want to convince everyone to use the correct terminology.

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, solely 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.




Comments are closed.

    Author

    Lynne Scott is the founder, president, and executive director of Craig Street Cats.

    Archives

    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    May 2018
    December 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013

    Categories

    All
    Cat Stories
    COVID Updates
    Cruelty
    Job Openings
    Random Musings

    RSS Feed


Subscribe to the Purrington Post, our html newsletter
​
to keep up to date on everything at Craig Street Cats!
© 2013 by Craig Street Cats
​16-1421 St. James St., WPG, MB, R3H 0Y9

Craig Street Cats is a non-profit organization but not a charity.  Donations are not tax deductible.
Donate Now