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'I betrayed my best friend'

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There were definitely other circumstances and he acted way too rashly, both with killing himself and the dog. I've only lost 1 dog in my life so far due to illness but if it had happened at certain points of my life where I was already struggling who knows what I would have done. Her death was the most crushing time of my life that put me in a serious emotional hole for like 3 weeks before it got a little better.

But his dog didn't have to die. I don't care what the reasons are, nothing would have taken my dog from me except death itself. I would have killed anyone who tried without hesitation, and he wasn't even in that situation. So what people were harassing him, tell them to fuck off. Or move. It's clear a lot more shit was going on.
 
Derrick01 said:
There were definitely other circumstances and he acted way too rashly, both with killing himself and the dog. I've only lost 1 dog in my life so far due to illness but if it had happened at certain points of my life where I was already struggling who knows what I would have done. Her death was the most crushing time of my life that put me in a serious emotional hole for like 3 weeks before it got a little better.

But his dog didn't have to die. I don't care what the reasons are, nothing would have taken my dog from me except death itself. I would have killed anyone who tried without hesitation, and he wasn't even in that situation. So what people were harassing him, tell them to fuck off. Or move. It's clear a lot more shit was going on.
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He had mental issues. It's not surprising at all that he's wasn't willing to either challenge the regulation or move out of his house.
 
Obviously this guy was having problems making judgments, which is not uncommon for someone with mental illness, and he has his dog euthanized despite it not being necessary. It's interesting, however, that in some instances a depressed mentality can willingly create the circumstances which allow for their own destruction. There's the possibility that his mind was so warped he euthanized his dog in order to feel some great blinding pain, which then drove him to ultimately end his own life. Imagine doing something like this unconsciously because you are so desperate for your own death. A very sad story, IMO.
 
SolKane said:
Obviously this guy was having problems making judgments, which is not uncommon for someone with mental illness, and he has his dog euthanized despite it not being necessary. It's interesting, however, that in some instances a depressed mentality can willingly create the circumstances which allow for their own destruction. There's the possibility that his mind was so warped he euthanized his dog in order to feel some great blinding pain, which then drove him to ultimately end his own life. Imagine doing something like this unconsciously because you are so desperate for your own death. A very sad story, IMO.
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He probably just wanted to avoid conflict so he convinced himself it was the right thing to do.
 
You guys need to remember that there are dudes out there who really connect with their dogs.. It becomes like another child to them, or a buddy, and that connection goes DEEP
 
SolKane said:
I think there's also an underlying subconscious conflict that drove his actions. Maybe some part of his mind wanted to make himself suffer?
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The symptoms you are describing are closer to post-traumatic stress disorder or borderline personality disorder than depression. PTSD victims will often engage in self-destructive behavior in an attempt to re-traumatize themselves, whereas someone with bpd might engage in self-destructive behavior to manipulate others.

edit: to clarify, many mood disorders can involve self-destructive behavior, of course. I'm referring to the specific type of event SolKane is implying in post #103.
 
echoshifting said:
The symptoms you are describing are closer to post-traumatic stress disorder or borderline personality disorder than depression. PTSD victims will often engage in self-destructive behavior in an attempt to re-traumatize themselves, whereas someone with bpd might engage in self-destructive behavior to manipulate others.
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Do you have any literature on this?

edit: This is what I was thinking of, for some reason I thought this was associated with depression also

Obsessed said:
Why do you think this?

It sounds completely baseless, just like 99.99% of Freudian psychology.
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It's just speculation based on personal experience. For instance, in my most depressed moods I've often fantasized about the death of family members or some emotionally cataclysmic event, because it feels impossible to otherwise have any emotions.
 
A lot of people are unaware of how to go about getting an animal adopted, and adopting out an animal is incredibly hard, especially an adult pitbull. Not doing it right runs you the risk of adopting out to an irresponsible owner and could ultimately result in the death of the dog anyway. You really have to be careful to who you adopt animals to.

It was definitely wrong to put the dog to sleep if it was completely healthy, but he knew it wasn't right, and took his own life out of guilt.. super sad..

I wish more people would have this man's outlook on animal companionship. Obviously not to the point of wanting to kill yourself if something ever happened, but there defintiely aren't enough people like this.
 
SolKane said:
Do you have any literature on this?

edit: This is what I was thinking of, for some reason I thought this was associated with depression also
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tbh I am just gonna close down that train of thought rather than trying to expand on it. I'm taking too much from my own personal experiences/therapy and trying to apply it to what you said in a way that doesn't really make sense, the more I think about it.
 
YoungHav said:
Darwin Award.
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You and the other assholes in this thread can do the same. Stupid fucks. It's obvious you and the others here haven't lived in the real world where people really can struggle with things you might consider small. I'm sure if we lifted the veil, you would look worse than how you perceive this guy to be.

The GAF world is so unlike the real world, it's hilarious.
 
I'm really struggling to understand if the dog meant that much to him, why not move somewhere else? Seriously, you'd rather commit suicide than just moving? The hell?
 
shinobi602 said:
I'm really struggling to understand if the dog meant that much to him, why not move somewhere else? Seriously, you'd rather commit suicide than just moving? The hell?
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Why would you struggle to understand anything? It's a news article. Do you really believe that they gave you even close to 50% of what really happened in the event or what lead to it?
 
Vets really should refuse to put down healthy animals. That's so selfish. Oop, don't want to take care of it anymore, kill it. Don't want to pay a $250 fine, don't want to move out of my apt, kill it.

It's a shame about the dog; but also the guy committing suicide. I'm guessing the dog wasn't the root issue of why he killed himself, must be more at work there.
 
He was a struggling actor who grew up an orphan. He claimed "the dog rescued me", indicating he was being rescued from some pretty severe loneliness.

According to other articles, he also phoned an ex-girlfriend at 2am the night before he offed himself.

Depression, loneliness, struggling in his career.. all caused him to put great importance on his dog... perhaps he really didn't have a lot of options, couldn't move because of financial constraints lease/owning, etc., and got rid of the dog because he couldn't afford to pay the possible numerous fines he had coming his way.

Obviously you can't just assume all of what I posted is true.. but it's what I've gleaned from the articles on the topic, and it's not all that shocking. Of course the articles focus on the dog, because that makes for a good "sad story" for people to latch on to, but the assumption can be made based on the other small facts that this was a depressed dude.

He set himself up for failure when a dog "saved" him in the first place, and then didn't try to further improve his life. Relying on an animal for such support is a dangerous thing for yourself, since animals have such short lifespans.
 
ReturnOfTheRAT said:
Clearly mental issues at play. This was his best option?
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I personally don't believe that suicide is a good solution. Someone suffering from depression should exhaust every other option they have before deciding on suicide.

However, depression has the funny ability of robbing someone of their rationality. That is why I can't stand when people call people who commit suicide cowards, or stupid. It really isn't their fault.
 
Koomaster said:
Vets really should refuse to put down healthy animals. That's so selfish. Oop, don't want to take care of it anymore, kill it. Don't want to pay a $250 fine, don't want to move out of my apt, kill it.

It's a shame about the dog; but also the guy committing suicide. I'm guessing the dog wasn't the root issue of why he killed himself, must be more at work there.
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This, I can't believe any respectable vet would even agree to putting down a healthy animal. I guess there could be a lot more to the issue. Really sucks for the guy, I know that exact feeling. I adopted my second dog when I was going through some really tough times and she helped me through, I couldn't imagine losing her. Definitely had some severe mental issues, RIP.
 
astroturfing said:
another thread where people shit on someone who committed suicide?
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Well I'm kind of torn on the issue because I'm pretty pissed that a perfectly healthy dog was killed for no reason, or killed just because he needed a reason to push him over the edge. That's fucked up. If he loved his dog like he claimed he did then that thought would have never crossed his mind. I've been in some pretty dark times but never once did the thought of killing my healthy best friend cross my mind. Not once. If anything the dog helped my state of mind and helped me improve.

I'd be a lot more sympathetic if he didn't do that.
 
Juancho9 said:
Why would you struggle to understand anything? It's a news article. Do you really believe that they gave you even close to 50% of what really happened in the event or what lead to it?
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...sorry, usually I go by what I read, like I do with anything? I didn't think it was the reader's job to automatically assume things behind closed curtains....
 
shinobi602 said:
...sorry, usually I go by what I read, like I do with anything? I didn't think it was the reader's job to automatically assume things behind closed curtains....
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It is the reader's responsibility to do exactly that, especially with news and history. Read between the lines.
 
I have a friend who was severely depressed and suicidal when she had to put her dog down.

It's really hard for me to understand, even as someone who loves animals. I'd like to think that there's more to the story than that but I'm not so sure.
 
perfectnight said:
Dogs aren't sapient. If they were they would probably rip your throat out as soon as they realize how they've been genetically fucked with for hundreds of years to keep lonely people happy. They are loyal because the don't know any better. Stop trying to instill human concepts into them.
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You can say the same thing about human beings over the years.
 
shinobi602 said:
I'm really struggling to understand if the dog meant that much to him, why not move somewhere else? Seriously, you'd rather commit suicide than just moving? The hell?
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I think he put down the dog thinking he'll be okay with it, he was probably alone on his birthday and drinking and wishes he had his dog next to him.
 
Man that's a rough situation. I would have found someone somewhere to take the dog even if for just a little while. But it wasn't fair for either of them for him to emotionally rely on a dog so heavily.
 
big ander said:
It is the reader's responsibility to do exactly that, especially with news and history. Read between the lines.
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Doesn't matter, no one who is sane in his mind would come to the conclusion that the best viable solution in this situation is putting their dog down. Come on, honestly now, do you contest that?

There are definitely better solutions that are plainly obvious too. So it leads me to think, that putting the dog down, along with committing suicide over a dog, no matter how close to the person, maybe he had some psychological problems.
 
shinobi602 said:
Doesn't matter, no one who is sane in his mind would come to the conclusion that the best viable solution in this situation is putting their dog down. Come on, honestly now, do you contest that?

There are definitely better solutions that are plainly obvious too. So it leads me to think, that putting the dog down, along with committing suicide over a dog, no matter how close to the person, maybe he had some psychological problems.
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Which is exactly what the person you were originally talking was saying, I think. He probably did have psychological problems. we both said that you could hypothesize that
 
Sucks about what happened.. but

I really dislike when some people act like there is no choice but to euthanize because they are too lazy (most of the time) to find a new home for their healthy pet. When you get a pet you should be prepared to be together for the long haul. Or at the very least find the best solution to handle those kinds of pet/home related problems.
 
suzu said:
Sucks about what happened.. but

I really dislike when some people act like there is no choice but to euthanize because they are too lazy (most of the time) to find a new home for their healthy pet. When you get a pet you should be prepared to be together for the long haul. Or at the very least find the best solution to handle those kinds of pet/home related problems.
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Yea but I'm thinking that he might've realized that only after he puts his dog down, so it's probably why he felt a tremendous sense of guilt. He probably stayed for many reasons, but whatever it is, he was probably like "what the fuck have I done?" after making the decision, at least that's my take on the story. Maybe he didn't think it was a big deal, maybe his work required him to stay, or maybe he didn't even try.
 
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