09-12-2010, 04:43 PM
Director Michael Wrote:Our overseeing Rabbi, Rabbi Moshe Weiner, says it appears that a person has no permission from G-d to perform a “mercy killing” of an animal. This means that if one sees an animal that is sick or injured, even it if will surely die, he should not kill it just from the desire to end its suffering. If there is a practical benefit the person can legally derive from some part or all of the animal's carcass, it is OK to kill the animal and follow through with that purpose.
I read the relevant section in "The Divine Code" just this week, and this is (as far as I can recall), the first time I have seen this thread.
My wife and I have had many dogs over the 19 years we have been together, one died as the result of being run over by a car, some died on their own, some we had put to sleep by the vet. This was all before I had read the Torah Laws concerning this subject.
My wife is VERY sensitive to the idea of cruelty to animals and it pains me to watch her seeing the pets suffering, especially when there is nothing that can be done to ease the suffering of our pets in the final stages of oldf age, cancer, or other fatal disease/disorder. Would I be permitted to put a terminally ill pet to sleep to ease my WIFE's suffering?