A Post That is Not for the Faint of Heart

The worst part of owning an animal is the time when you're faced with make the ultimate life-or-death decision:  the one that ends in Death (euthanasia).  The second worst part of owning an animal is what to do with that animal after you've made that God-awful decision.

I had Justy euthanized yesterday.  Even though I logically knew it was the right thing to do, I was still a basketcase all day, until Greg (the vet whom I have known for 20+ years)  finally showed up.  Then the question became:  What do you do with a 60-pound dead pygmy goat?

+

+

+

when Annie died

I had her cremated...

*

*

*

*

when Stuffy err.....  Fluffy died....

I brought her home to be buried in the backyard.

*

*

*

Toby was cremated and is, I think, still in the hall closet...

*

*

*

After her dramatic demise, we buried Maria

because she was awfully special (to no one but me!)

*

*

*

But what do you do with your animals when you've run out of burying holes and it costs too much to cremate them (not to mention having enough room on the mantel)?  Well, I discovered two options here in San Diego: one was D & D Disposal Services.  They pick the animals up and deliver them to a rendering plant.  The other was ThaniCare, who calls ahead to our local landfill to have them dig a hole, and then he buries them there.

The latter may sound rather undignified and kind of gross.  But let me say that I am not a bleeding liberal. I am not a card-carrying member of PETA. I am not a vegetarian, much less a vegan. But I do believe that these animals deserve fair and honest treatment and -- whether they are beloved pets or food animals destined for the table -- a quiet and pain-free death.

 That said, do you have ANY IDEA what a rendering plant does?    This gets a little graphic here... use some discretion as to whether you want to read on. 

D & D goes around and picks up all the mortality (nice word for DEAD) in our area -- dead dogs and cats from the pound and the vets; meat scraps and spoiled meat from the grocery stores; dead horses, sheep, pigs; as well as the County's roadkill. 

They put them in trucks -----

or, here in San Diego, they put them in barrels.

Is that more genteel?

Then they deliver it to a rendering plant in Los Angeles where they put all of those animals in a huge tank and cook them down.  And when I say "ALL," I mean ALL.  Dogs with their flea collars, cows with their insecticide-laden ear tags, spoiled meat from Von's still in the Styrofoam package; animals who have been shot and still have the bullets, animals who've been euthanized and are still full of drugs.  All of them go into the same pot and are cooked and cooked until there is nothing left but the fluid.  Then the fluid is allowed to dry to a crumbly, flaky powder.

Once again, once we're dead, we're dead.  I'm not too particular on what happens to our earthly remains after death, BUT...

The plant in Los Angeles takes those dried remains of the rendering process and EXPORTS IT TO CHINA WHERE IT IS USED AS FEED IN THEIR SHRIMP FARMS.

What did you eat for dinner last night?