It is a fact of life that life has no guarantees. The same happens to pets and you are likely to occasionally come across a crippled pet courtesy of either an accident or an incident that occurred in its life. In some cases, you find that some owners abandon them or take them to rescue centres through alibis in order to shirk responsibility. Cases of euthanasia being administered to snuff the poor lives of such pets abound. The poignant issue is that these pets should be cared for since its not their fault. Have you ever had to nurse a crippled or debilitated pet?
I've never had to take care of a crippled pet. My sister had her cat ran over my her uncle on her dad's side and our first dog was ran over our grandma who just threw him in the ditch. The closest I've had to taking care of a crippled dog was my grandpa's dog that he backed over with a tractor. She healed but she would hobble around the house and look so sad at not being able to go check on the cows with grandpa.
Personally, I think it depends on how crippled the pet ends up being after an accident. If it is a simple problem of getting a wheelchair so they can scoot around or a prosthetic leg, then it's a shame to put them to sleep. But if they are in physical or neurological chronic pain then I understand putting a pet down so it doesn't have to suffer anymore. But most of the time, it's just a lazy answer to a problem that needs a creative solution.
When Tisoy, our spitz, was a puppy, he was so reckless so we had to cage him or leash him so he wouldn't hurt himself. But in spite of the leash, he was able to climb the stairs and fall down 3 steps. We heard him crying and it was a pitiful sight that he had hurt a paw. But after some weeks, he did it again and the other front paw got damaged. He could barely walk so we had him inside a cage to recuperate. It took a week before he could walk again but with a limp. And that limp vanished after 2 or 3 months.
It's sad when the pet has health issues particularly injuries like what happened to Tisoy. His front paws still bear that accident - both are deformed and don't look sturdy enough.
