For its part, PAWS will always advocate to help animals as much as it can, where it can, and whenever possible but also recognizes that in certain situations, euthanasia or putting an animal to sleep becomes the only humane option and is an important service that is offered to them in respect of their dignity as sentient beings. We recommend only methods that cause a rapid loss of consciousness and that cause minimal pain, distress, and suffering in the animal.
Understandably, this option would only be reserved for the worst-case scenarios such as animals who manifest severe injuries. These cases are always thoroughly studied and evaluated in terms of the animal’s current state of being, their chances of recovery and survival, and their resulting quality of life afterwards. Deciding to euthanize an animal despite all these considerations remains a painful but necessary decision and volunteers would never be required to participate in the process of putting the animal to sleep should they not wish to.