We had a discussion in Animal Science class yesterday about the value of livestock and pets.
If a cow worth $300 swallows a nail or other assorted hardware, would it be worth a $400 surgery to remove the metal or spend $7 on a magnet that would hold everything in place until slaughter?
What if a 14 year old dog would get an additional 6 months of life if it received an $8,000 procedure?
How about a horse with severe colic? Is is worth a 3 hours drive to the vet school for a $3,000 surgery for a 50/50 chance of survival?
The professor suggested having these questions already decided prior to the event becoming a hard, fast decision based on emotion rather than economics.
I can answer the first two situations easily. Give the cow a magnent and kiss the pup goodbye. But that horse....Well, that is a bit more difficult. It would have to depend on how old the horse was. If today that decision would have to be made, I'd probably have the surgery. If she was another 4 years older, maybe I would just kiss her goodbye. At this moment, I have too much invested in her to not take the chance. Then again, if my anti-horse husband had to make the decision, my lovely Kadance would be making a hasty visit to the renderer.
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