Giving love unconditionally comes naturally for dogs. Sadly, however, not every dog owner is so deserving of it.
Meet Wizard of Wags (that’s Wiz or Wags for short). He’s a healthy 12-year-old beagle who’ll never know how close he came to having his life cut short by the people who are supposed to love him.
Last week, his family took him into a Cleveland veterinary office to have him euthanized.
The reason? They were “tired of his hair.”
Fortunately, the vet, evidently unable to get the family to reconsider, instead convinced them to let her find someone who might take the dog and keep him safe. That’s when she called volunteers from the rescue group Secondhand Mutts.
“We accepted her plea for help, rounded up a foster home in a pinch, and one of our volunteers transported him to us the next day,” the group wrote online. “Despite being 12 years old Wiz is full of life and happy to be alive and well.”
The Wizard of Wags is currently with a foster parent, and will hopefully soon find a forever home worthy of his affection.
This dog’s story has brought to attention a practice known as “convenience euthanasia” which, the Plain Dealer reports, is a request more and more vets are seeing pet owners make.
“The actual decision to not do a ‘convenience euthanasia’ would be a decision of the individual veterinarian based on their personal philosophies,” Barry M. Kellogg, senior veterinary advisor at the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association, told the paper. “There certainly is nothing written to my knowledge in the line of requirements or even recommendations or advice.”
Thankfully, there are vets who are will to take initiative to save a life, even if an animal’s family thinks it has no value.
