Similar to Wyvern's question in a way... but not really.
Last night I found a cricket in the house that one of my dogs had apparently stepped on. He was moving a little but barely. I inched him gently onto a piece of paper and took him (her?) out to my flowerbed to let the little buggy die in peace.
Thinking about it a brief while later, though, I wondered if that was really the most compassionate thing to do. I mean, if you're out in the woods and come across an animal that you know will die an agonizing death, shouldn't you "put it out of its misery" if you can do so and know how? It's not right to let it suffer through every last labored breath just so it can "die a natural death", is it? But I don't know how to kill insects with any kind of grace or dignity.
So what are your thoughts?
Posted Answers
A:I try to save them all but at the same time, I don't want them to suffer. If I thought it was more humane, I would kill it. I am for assisted suicide. It is a comassionate thing.
 
Answer by veganvampira
Sun, 09/07/2008 - 2:26pm — veganvampira
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A:i know its a bit wrong but it all depends on if the insect can hurt me or cause an inconvenience of some sort.
for example, a fly, can get really annoying and i try to simply get them out of the house but sometimes they just don't sooo you know what happens.
and then spiders are a phobia of mine so i just stay away
i feel really bad for rolly pollys and earwigs tho, for some reason i just do, if i see one dying, i'll set it away from danger to see if maybe it can live a while longer :D
Answer by bringinveggieback
Sat, 08/30/2008 - 2:01am — bringinveggieback
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A:Im not an expert on bugs, but if the thing looks like it may live i put it in a jar and watch it for a bit then do what i can and later rlease it.
if not i smoosh it quickly.all at once no suffering
Animals i nurse when i can
My cat once caught a bat and shredded the poor guys wing. I kept him in a dark box and fed him baby banana food and meal worms. called a university where they care for bats the lady drove all the way across the state to get Barnabus (still his name) and he is doing fine he ill never be able to go back out in the wild but he has all the room to roam.
one could say thats nice.....but then would also wonder if it is.
I used to do alot of rescue work. chances arewhen its time youll know.
I remember being so upset because my cat caught a rabbit.
I wanted so badly for that rabbit to be okay. then i wanted so badly for it to be put out of its misery.
I learned a few lessons that day
Answer by Lupustheurge
Thu, 08/28/2008 - 11:33pm — Lupustheurge
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A:I live "in the country" near some woods. In the woods is a family of coyotes. I hear animals being killed by them all the time. It's not a nice sound and isn't music to my soul. Nature's a cruel bitch! I can hear coyotes doing their "kill-song" after they bag themselves dinner. yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip man on a nice night with the right acoustical conditions, I can hear them yipping from miles away.
It's not easy to listen to an animal wailing in agony for 20 minutes while it dies a death by 1000 bites. I can only sit there in bed, when I hear it, eyes staring at the ceiling trying to imagine what that animal is going through, wishing I could find it and kill it to put it out of it's misery.
So when I see an animal in the throes of death, imho the right thing to do is to end it's suffering. I can't listen to an animal wailing for God for 20 minutes without being disturbed.
Answer by AcePylut
Thu, 08/28/2008 - 11:37am — AcePylut
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A:I have euthanised small animals like mice. I found a dying sheep a few years ago when visiting some land my then girlfriend owned and had to leave it because the only way to kill it was to strangle it or cave it's head in with one of the farm tools, neither of which were realistic options. Can you picture a vegetarian strangling a sheep to death?
However if I had a gun or something to inject it I would have put it out of it's misery. When I went back a few months later I found it's bones. Most of it was where it had lay down to die but some was scattered by foxes. I felt bad because I didn't know if the foxes got to it before or after it died!
I have seen evidence that insects feel pain, but I don't know if they can suffer. I will always rescue bugs from my cat, but not from a spider as that is spider dinner. If I found a half dead bug I would finish the job, bugs are easier to manage than sheep.
Isn't it strange that you are allowed to kill a dying animal to reduce it's suffering but not a human? What a sick world we live in.
Answer by adam_antichrist
Thu, 08/28/2008 - 5:20am — adam_antichrist
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A:One time when I was younger we were going out to my Grandmothers house for easter. She lived out in the country. we were at a stop light and my dad was yelling don't look. I looked out the window and there was this poor kitten that was flopping around. He had been hurt. I started screaming and crying and yelling them to save it. The pulled over and went to go get the kitty and he ended up dying. I cried the entire day. It was so sad, I still get upset about it.
I don't know how to save injured bugs. If they are inside, I stick them outside. If there is a leg here and there and a head over there, well looks like the cats put him out of its misery!
Answer by Anonymous
Wed, 08/27/2008 - 1:53am — Anonymous
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A:I live in an old house so I always find "critters" near the doors and windows. The ones I do see crawling around get scooped into a shot glass and set outside. For the times I get there after the kitties have gotten to them I physically can't find it in me to just "stomp it out of its misery". Everyday I see people all around me whose reflex it is to do this at the first sight of an unpleasant insect. I can't.
I think the best way to put it out of its misery is a simple toilet flush. To me it doesn't seem as violent as stomping the poor thing to death. Then again it is said that drowning is the worst way to die. So who knows???
Answer by HippieVeganite
Tue, 08/26/2008 - 10:59pm — HippieVeganite
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A:Bugs i would just kill. Other wild animals though i try to help.
My neighbors cat attacked a Robin so i ran out and stopped the cat, then put the Robin in a tank so it could rest overnight. The next morning i saw his wing was too damaged so i took him to a wild life rehabilitation center so they could splint the wing and release him after he heals.
Same thing happened with a baby bunny just a week or two ago, another cat. They never kill it, they just catch it out of curiosity it seems. So once again i had to run out to find this shaking baby bunny lying on his side. i set him on a box and left him alone because they are known to go into shock quickly. i came back to see how it was doing, and it died. No real damage to the bunny, i think he just went into shock from the cat. Sad it died but theres nothing i could have done. The mother came back looking for it too which made it more sad.
Answer by Cyanide
Tue, 08/19/2008 - 10:30pm — Cyanide
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A:First, everything has an equal right to live. Secondly all our lives are different, even among the same species. Here in Oregon we have an assisted suicide law where we honor an individual's decision to end life due to unyielding suffering. Some choose to live with the same pain others choose not to. It is not my decision.
At my house we provide hospice to the injured critters. Some die and others thrive and move on. Birds we hold and feed or put under a warm light and feed and blankets and try to sooth and comfort. Bugs are a different story- I feel they will relate better to more natural surroundings, I cannot conceive of replicating a nesting situation for a bug- I can't relate. I figure bugs are better off receiving hospice from nature.
Answer by Micah Perry
Tue, 08/19/2008 - 10:07am — Micah Perry
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A:As for a bug, that's what I would ask someone to do (I'm afraid of bugs), although none ever survive more than a few minutes b/c the way I usually find them is b/c our cat has got to them first.
For the larger species, there is always wildlife rescue. http://mowildlife.org/
They're in Ballwin, MO
Answer by tori_smith1
Mon, 08/18/2008 - 1:23pm — tori_smith1
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A:It's kind of bizaare that this was posted. Yesterday, I was walking out of a movie theater and there was a large butterfly on the ground. I thought it was likely dead and went to pick it up. When I did, it started moving but could not fly. It was a monarch and it looked like a niave bird took a bite and dropped him.
I picked him up and put him in a flower hoping that maybe, with the nectar within reach, he could gain enough strength to get better. But, as I walked away, I really wondered if I should have put him out of his misery. After all, if one of my arms had a chunk taken out of it and my legs were broken, I would want someone to do the same for me (given that hospitals would not exist).
I still don't know if I did the right thing.
Answer by animalia_libero
Mon, 08/18/2008 - 9:18am — animalia_libero
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A:I understand the idea of putting it out of it's misery, but why can't we do that with people? We force them to live years beyond what they should all sick and messed up. We put them on machines and into "homes" that usually smell like piss where they all they can do is cry, scream, and sometimes beg for death. That gets uncomfortable so people stop visiting. Yet, we put an animal out of it's misery.
Answer by MollyMormon
Mon, 08/18/2008 - 8:30am — MollyMormon
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A:I have to be honest. In the circumstances which you describe, I would probably stand on the insect and put it out of its misery... although normally, I go to a great deal of bother to release insects back into nature when I find them inside or just let them continue to crawl around unhindered, depending on what type of insect it is.
Answer by Maria
Mon, 08/18/2008 - 7:57am — Maria
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A:Suuuuure. Blame it on the dogs. :Þ
Just my first thought on this, and I'm tired...but IF you know for sure it's going to die (don't know how you'd know, I'm not a buggy doctor, either) then wouldn't just stomping on be the best way to do it? I know that sounds really awful, but one time we had driven past an animal that had been hit by a car and it was flailing all over the center of the road and I made my husband drive back so he could kill it. It was already dead when we got there, and he had NO idea what he was going to DO, or if he'd be able to do anything, but I just couldn't stand the thought of it having to bounce all around like that anymore. (There was no way that the animal in question here was going to live.)
Answer by Anonymous
Mon, 08/18/2008 - 1:48am — Anonymous
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A:I'm not really sure it's our place to say when everything should die.
I know I'm not answering the question, but that's my thought at the moment :O)
Answer by sassafras
Mon, 08/18/2008 - 1:46am — sassafras
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Mon, 08/18/2008 - 1:36am — smilesforthesun
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