When we talk about how death is perceived, and even more so, we wonder how it will be perceived by others, perhaps there is no better way to understand it than empathy, a cognitive art that allows us to reconnect with others. And why not? Even with the animals.
If anyone knows empathy for animals, it’s veterinarians. For this reason, through their experiences when sacrificing sick dogs, we can know what do dogs feel before they die.
An example of the above is in the response that a veterinarian gave his client when she asked him what is the most difficult part of his job. The user posted the veterinarian’s response on Twitter, to raise awareness about it:
I asked my vet what the hardest part of his job was and he told me that when he had to euthanize an animal, 90% of the owners didn’t want to be in the room when he injected them. The animal’s last moments are often frantic and they look around to find their owners.
— jessi dietrich (@jessi_dietrich) July 27, 2018
Following the success of this tweet, a veterinary hospital in South Africa sought to raise awareness about what dogs feel before they die and the importance of being by his side in the final moments. On your Facebook account they replicated the publication of one of their veterinarianswho with his words seeks to prevent people from abandon your dogs when they will be euthanized.
According to this specialist, dogs «search each face for the loved one» and do not understand why their owner is not there. Therefore, he insists:
Don’t be a coward just because you think it’s too hard for you. Imagine how they feel when you leave them at their most vulnerable and people like me have to do everything they can every time to comfort them, make them less scared and try to explain why you just couldn’t stay.
So, speaking of empathy, It seems that the owners have to face the painful situation of euthanizing our dogbut not only with the decision to do it, but reaching the end: not leaving him alone in his last moments.
Because dogs, before dying, feel fear, uncertainty and restlessness, just like us.
It may sound like an existential question to ask ourselves if dogs understand that they are going to die. But actually, empathy is the best tool to understand this process in them; because if we ask ourselves if they understand death in the sense of reason it outthe answer will be unquestionable: it is known that dogs do not reason like us.
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However, they do feel. And some of their cognitive instincts, like gut feeling or intuition, are much stronger in them than in us –and that tells us a lot about his behavior–. Such a thing is well known to veterinarians as jennifer coateswho in his experience has been able to verify that dogs –and other animals– have a peculiar understanding of situations involving deatheither own or someone else’s:
On one occasion I sedated the family dog and placed an intravenous catheter through which I was to administer the last injection of euthanasia solution. Until this point, the family cat had stayed away. But just as I started to administer the injection, he walked over to me, lay down, and gently put his paw on his friend’s leg as if to say, «Don’t worry, I’m here with you.»
What is certain – and precious – is that a dog, before dying, feels an immense love.
A dog is capable of presenting what will happen, and for this reason it wants to be with its owner – its friend – before leaving. The experiences of most of those who have accompanied their dog in this process confirm this, like some collected on the Quora portalwhere some owners responded to the question of what do dogs feel before they die:
I wasn’t in India when Bugs died. […] after the burial […] finally my brother asked mom: «Ma, what was Bugs doing before he died?» Tears streamed down her cheeks. In a voice of obvious pain, she said: «He stopped eating. I gave him everything he would like, but nothing worked. He gestured me towards the tree: I went out and sat there. When he saw me there, he gave a little bark, jumped up playfully, and fell asleep. He never woke up,» he concluded.
That was the tree Mom found him under 10 years ago.
Was he saying thank you, perhaps? Or I love you? Or was it just a dance of joy? I really do not know.
— Jedidiah Benhur Margoschis Wisely, English Instructor (2012-present) Answered May 12, 2018
Honestly, it’s different for every dog, just like it’s different for every person.
I have been there, at the end of three family dogs that died of diseases. […] None of my dogs tried to go off and be alone when they were dying. They always wanted to be with us (especially me). Layla was no different, which is why we spent our last night on the kitchen floor with her. She couldn’t get up, but if she left the room, she’d try to crawl to follow me.
With the three dogs whose deaths I witnessed, their bodies began to shut down, but they continued to maintain the will to live and the love they have for their families. In the end, their bodies fail them and they seem to be unaware of anything anymore. I have never had a dog go off on its own to die, or he went off easily or in his sleep. He was always heartbreaking, but I was glad they were surrounded by love when they went.
—Alicia Bayer, BA Creative Writing in English & Women’s Studies, University of Kentucky (1992) Answered Feb 23, 2017
This is a bit hard for me! But still I will try to answer what a dog feels before dying:
That’s Tuffy, the little fool who blessed my life while he was alive, but left me devastated and depressed when he crossed over!
He blessed us with his presence for about 12 years. He had developed an enlarged prostate that led to a urinary tract infection (UTI). Due to this medical condition he was unable to urinate, and underwent a large number of medical procedures over a period of time, but his condition deteriorated, leading to multiple organ failure.
On his last day he wandered into every corner of our house frantically, in every corner where he loved to hang out. It seemed like he knew his time was up, and he was trying to convey the same to us. In the final moments he was in my arms, bleeding a little from his mouth, gasping for his last breaths before he left us for eternity. She died in my arms and my life has not been the same since.
—M. Sachdev, Self Employed, Answered May 4, 2018
Any doubt that dogs are love, through and through?
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