When Should You Say Goodbye to a Pet?

The New Yorker story chronicles how advances in veterinary medicine and the growing tendency to treat pets as family have led many owners to seek hospice-style support for aging and terminal animals. As treatments such as dialysis and chemotherapy have become available to pets, owners face new dilemmas about when to pursue life‑extending care and when to prioritize comfort and a humane end-of-life experience. The article follows a palliative‑care physician who spent a balmy October day in Plymouth, Massachusetts, accompanying veterinarian Kennedy, who runs an in‑home hospice and euthanasia practice she opened in 2017. Kennedy, who initially had little formal training in talking about death, now does home visits with supplies for symptom relief and, when chosen, peaceful euthanasia; she also teaches families what dying can look like in animals. Local veterinarians began referring difficult end‑of‑life cases to her after she demonstrated that better pain control and environmental changes often improve a pet’s remaining time. Two detailed cases illustrate the work. Julio, an athletic rescue dog who began showing mobility problems around age eleven, became the focus of heated disagreements between his owners, Ben and Sherri, who had previously regretted waiting too long to euthanize their cat, Tango. Kennedy assessed Julio as a geriatric patient, recommended practical home adaptations (raised bowls, non‑slip toe grips, small stairs) and low‑dose pain medication; those measures improved his mobility, appetite, and constipation and helped the family keep him comfortable at home. The piece also profiles Jingo, a small black‑and‑white dog whose prior anal‑cancer surgery left him incontinent and who later developed a collapsing trachea with frightening breathing episodes. His owner, Amy, reorganized her life around his needs, and Kennedy suggested medication adjustments and gave a quality‑of‑life survey to help Amy and her husband weigh difficult choices. The article highlights how owners wrestle with guilt, fear of “playing God,” and the practical burdens of fragile pets while seeking guidance. At a systems level, veterinarian Shanan — who founded the International Association for Animal Hospice and Palliative Care in 2009 — has led efforts to create guidelines, training, and a textbook (published in 2017); the organization now counts more than fifteen hundred veterinarian members. The article contrasts pet hospice with human hospice: human programs are generally insurance‑covered, require a prognosis of months, and never include clinician‑administered life‑ending care, whereas pet hospice is typically paid out of pocket, has no strict life‑expectancy rules, and can encompass euthanasia. Veterinarians emphasize that assessing animal suffering is challenging because pets hide pain (pain scales for cats emerged only in the 2000s) and that quality‑of‑life surveys tracking mobility, eating, drinking, and elimination can help families decide when to let go. Readers are encouraged, through the examples and professional perspectives, to talk with their veterinarians about palliative options, symptom control, and tools that can guide humane, compassionate decisions for senior pets.