Such a delicate subject to bring up ! Which nevertheless deserves not to remain taboo.
I think that the context positions the human action and also attests to their motivations. So it is far from being just a matter of semantics.
Abandoning
Jeter son animal par-dessus la grille d’un refuge, l’attacher au portail du refuge, le délaisser en forêt ou sur une aire d’autoroute loin de chez soi, le déposer en refuge car il a des comportements normaux pour un chien mais indésirables pour l’humain et qu’on refuse d’y accorder du temps en éducation, faire du chantage auprès d’associations pour qu’elles le récupèrent avant de demander une euthanasie de complaisance à un vétérinaire. Throwing your animal over the fence of a shelter, tying him to the shelter gate, abandoning him in the forest or on a highway service area far from home, dropping him off at a shelter because he has normal behavior for a dog but undesirable behavior for humans and because you refuse to give it time for training, blackmailing associations to take him in before asking a veterinarian for euthanasia.
Rehoming
Determining that the animal's needs can no longer be met, that the environment in which he lives does not meet his well-being, taking action alone or with someone to find another home that will be a match for him.
In the first case, the comfort of the human does take priority ; in the second case, the comfort of the dog does.
This is just my opinion, but someone who leaves their dog in a shelter or with an association because they are losing their home or because they have a serious illness is in the process of rehoming without having the logistical means to do so.
There are certainly as many reasons, legitimate or not, personal or not, understandable or not, acceptable or not, to no longer live with a being. That being said, let's keep it in mind that we, humans, bring dogs into our lives. It is we who impose our way of life on them while they do not have the same perception of the world and do not assess it as we do. They are the ones who seek the most to adapt to us.
Let's consider some concrete examples :
➡️ a dog who suffers from separation anxiety: his humans work long hours during the day; they don’t know anyone who can look after him and don’t want to rely on strangers. They have several options: set up a desensitization protocol (during which the dog will only be alone during the exercises), keep their dog without setting up a desensitization protocol and risk a complaint from the neighbors, keep their dog and put a collar around his neck that will emit an unpleasant stimulus so that he stops his vocalizations, place their dog in a home in which people are present as often as possible.
➡️ a dog that suffers from noise anxiety: he lives in the city, in a busy neighborhood. He is given courses to regularly but he remains anxious at every stimulus. Several options are then possible: keep the dog and give him anxiolytics for life, keep the dog in a restricted space (apartment and a few streets) and take him to the countryside from time to time so that he can unwind, rehome him in the countryside.
➡️ a dog that lacks working out: he lives in the city, has regular walks; he shows hostile behaviors at times; the health of his owners is deteriorating. Several options are available: hire a professional as regularly as possible to walk and run the dog in order to meet his needs (and reduce his undesirable behaviors due to his lack of physical exercise), keep the dog and compensate for his lack of physical exercise with more mental exercises, keep the dog and accept his behaviors and avoid any encounters and crossings that would trigger them, rehome the dog with dynamic people.
➡️ a dog that no longer tolerates the other dog: they have always lived together; are from the same canine family; the owners implement exercises and separations. Several options are available to them: continue to separate the dogs and continue exercises without guarantee of reconciliation, keep the dogs and repress them as soon as they look at each other with hostility, keep the dogs and muzzle them all the time, rehome one of the dogs while staying in touch so as not to lose sight of him.
In no case is any decision "easy" to make, because it involves adapting one's daily life, accepting a bereavement, a separation, making choices that sometimes go against one's own well-being as a human, or that of the dog, or that of both.
Comments