<p>I went to the vet last weekend and it got me thinking- veterinarians often kill animals in order to relieve suffering; would this form of killing be considered to violate the first precept, even though it would be done out of compassion? If so, would a career in vet medicine not be considered right livelihood? It seems as though leaving animals instead to die a slow and painful death would be inhumane.
Just curious, thanks for reading. Ian</p>

<p>Found this interesting article via a similar question, if anyone is still interested: <a href="http://www.urbandharma.org/pdf/geth0401.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.urbandharma.org/pdf/geth0401.pdf</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-27T06:15:29.337Z
Without getting to the heart of the issue, I can say that veterinary practice outside of euthanasia is very compassionate. Whether or not euthanasia counts as compassion, I hope we can get some good answers on it.
Anthony
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-27T06:17:52.017Z
Perhaps we should flip the question on its site and ask how discompassionate it is to prolong a being's suffering.
Anthony
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-27T14:46:10.840Z
Duplicate of http://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/2825/euthanasia-for-animals
ruben2020
<personal-practice><five-precepts><killing><animals>
Right Livelihood and Veterinarians
# Right Livelihood and Veterinarians

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-02-27)

I went to the vet last weekend and it got me thinking- veterinarians often kill animals in order to relieve suffering; would this form of killing be considered to violate the first precept, even though it would be done out of compassion? If so, would a career in vet medicine not be considered right livelihood? It seems as though leaving animals instead to die a slow and painful death would be inhumane.
Just curious, thanks for reading. username_0

Found this interesting article via a similar question, if anyone is still interested: <http://www.urbandharma.org/pdf/geth0401.pdf>

**Tags:** personal-practice, five-precepts, killing, animals

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Without getting to the heart of the issue, I can say that veterinary practice outside of euthanasia is very compassionate. Whether or not euthanasia counts as compassion, I hope we can get some good answers on it.  
> **username_1**: Perhaps we should flip the question on its site and ask how discompassionate it is to prolong a being's suffering.  
> **username_2**: Duplicate of http://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/2825/euthanasia-for-animals  

---

## 0 answers

