Animals, Bizarre

A Dead Woman Wants To Kill This Dog

241EDC9400000578-2877560-image-a-1_1418826228085Meet Bela, a healthy German shepherd in Indiana. He would seem ideal for an adoption except for one thing. His recently deceased owner, Connie Lay, specified in her will that Bela, her beloved companion, should be euthanized upon her death and his ashes buried with her. Despite an outcry, she may succeed in reaching from the grave to end Bela’s life. In fairness to Lay, her love for the dog seems to have motivated her unusual demand and she allowed for one escape clause for Bela.

The problem (which we have previously discussed) is that pets are legally treated as chattel or property. Owners have the right to do what they wish with their property. In this case, Lay seems to want a modern variation of a Viking funeral with her dead dog at her feet. But wait, it gets worse. Lay was not so heartless as it may seem. She said that the dog could be spared if he was sent to Best Friends Animal Society in Utah, a no-kill sanctuary. However, her attorney said that there is no money for such a transfer.

Her lawyer Doug Denmore also says that Bela is aggressive and that Ms Lay kept a record of his aggressive behavior. Indeed, Bela would not allow people to come near Lay’s body after her death. Yet, there are people who are willing to adopt Bela and the shelter says that they have not witnessed aggressive behavior. In the meantime, Denmore is trying to raise money to send Bela to Utah and the euthanasia is temporarily on hold.

It is an interesting case since owners do have some greater limitations in their treatment of dogs than say a couch or a table. They cannot be cruel to a dog or wantonly kill a dog. Yet, they can put the dog down.

59 thoughts on “A Dead Woman Wants To Kill This Dog”

  1. And it’s true that people have the legal right to put their dog down for whatever reason they choose. I recall when I volunteered at a vet that a family put an older, healthy dog down because they were just apparently tired of it.

    My hope is that we can meet the requirements for the escape clause.

  2. And a dog guarding his owner’s dead body, and not letting strangers in the house, does not sound like unusual aggression.

    My cattle dog won’t let a stranger, such as a workman, in the house, either, unless I tell him to. Then he’ll play ball with him. But if that stranger comes back to do more work the next day, my dog still won’t let him in unless I tell him it’s OK, and he wouldn’t let him in at all if I’m not there. He also defends the property against coyotes and stray dogs, and saved my little boy from an attacking pack of dogs.

    We need more information to determine if Bela is truly an aggressive dog, or just a normal loyal GSD.

  3. Reminds me of the Save Toby rabbit scam….a guy showed pix of his rabbit as a cute baby, and more as he had grown…but then said he could no longer afford his upkeep & said he would then kill Toby & eat him….even posting recipes on his webpage.
    I forgot how much people sent him, but someone finally bought Toby….

    http://savetoby.com/

  4. I saw this posted by a rescue. From my understanding, her will allowed an alternative of putting Bela in a shelter, but as Aridog has stated, they have not been allowed to take him yet. I do not know if that is because her first choice was euthanasia, and something needs to trigger the second choice of letting her beautiful, loyal, loving friend live out his natural life rather than putting him down while he’s perfectly healthy.

    This woman seems like a terribly selfish, callous pet owner. What a betrayal to her loyal canine friend. If she was still alive she’d hear such an outpouring of outrage from around the world.

    The only humane situation where I can understand putting down a healthy animal is what I’ve heard of happening in the horse community, more frequently now with a bad economy. Someone with an ancient, but healthy horse, will sometimes stipulate euthanasia in their will if they are unable to find someone who will agree to take them on after the owner dies. It costs a lot of money to board and feed a single horse. Rescues are glutted, and these old, sweet horses often end up in slaughter houses. I’ve heard of owners stipulating they be put down to ensure their beloved friend doesn’t end up getting a hideous death at a slaughter house in Mexico or Canada. There are always emails and ads posted that a horse has days to find a buyer or adoptee before going off to slaughter. Once an owner dies, bad things can happen to their horses.

  5. If anyone has the information on how to donate to help Bela….they should post it on Reddit. The people of Reddit love animals and they would be inundated with donations. The funds to send the dog to Utah would be there in no time.

    How much CAN it possibly cost to transport a dog from Indiana to Utah? Seriously. Get a crate. A truck or SUV and some volunteers to drive for about 3 days. Big deal. Gas money and some food.

  7. Nick…I never have to much on my plate to help a German Shepherd Dog…or any dog or horse for that matter, if within my means. However, my reading is that those last wishes stipulate a shelter in Utah (FFS), and several people have already offered to adopt Bela from the PAWS shelter she’s in now…and apparently been denied.

  8. The escape clause is NOT impossible to meet. Is there a site where one can donate for Bela’s benefit? I’d even consider taking her myself…but I’d need to visit her first. My understanding is that she is an older dog, around 10 years of age. That can be a challenge, even financially (one of my dogs cost me over $4500 in his last year of life), but otherwise not impossible to an experienced handler. Bela’s defensive behavior is nothing more than my old dog “Zoya” did, a trained Schutzhund dog, when she allowed no one to enter a room or approach me even if I was just sleeping. “Ari” was no different and far more firm in his responses…however, he seemed to equate Judi and I as one & the same. Act aggressive around either of us and “Ari” would step in front and then you had 95 lbs of large trained male dog to deal with…wave your arms around in front of either of those dogs and you were going to the ground in their grip. It, however, can be handled. As I said, is there a site or address where one can reach the shelter or the family representatives? If it’s in the post I missed it. At the least I will contribute to Bela’s welfare.

    That said, other than the PAWS reference, the problem seems to be the lawyer and the will specifying a specific shelter. No shelter I know of needs more dogs to care for… but the will stipulates “no-kill” so why not take an option that doesn’t kill the dog? Several have already offered to adopt Bela otherwise. Can’t the lawyer violate a minor portion of the last wishes for the benefit of a living thing, given that it will not harm the deceased what-so-ever?

    The law is an ass at times. This simple matter is a good example.

  9. The issue should be whether while Ms. Lay was alive did she have a legal right to have her aggressive dog killed by her vet? [The terms “putting the dog down,” “euthanizing the dog,” and “putting the dog to sleep” are PC euphemisms for having the animal killed.] The dog now is owned by her estate, which has a duty to carry out lawful instructions left by the decedent. If it was lawful for Ms. Lay to have her dog killed while she was alive, other people should butt out when her estate carries out her instructions.

    1. hinkydinkkenna – could not agree with you more. It is her will, it has an escape clause which seems impossible to meet.

  11. To offset this depressing story about the value of an animal’s life, consider investing in Beyond Meat https://beyondmeat.com/ or at least give the product a try. (I have no financial interest in it, only an ethical interest.)

  12. Aridog would be the type person who could adopt Bela. But, he has a lot on his plate right now,

    Pogo, great cover. I did not know PJ wrote for them. It fits. Do you remember their HS Yearbook w/ Wing Ding Weisenheimer? Hilarious.

    1. Nick – the original writers for National Lampoon came from Harvard Lampoon, hence P.J. O’Rourke.

    1. Pogo – did you ever read their Law of the Jungle article? I wish I could find a copy of it.

  15. Pogo – that was a great cover from National Lampoon. That was in the days when they were still funny. 😉

  16. A Viking funeral would require that her closest male companions get a virgin drunk, each rape her, then kill her and then put her body on the funeral pyre with her body. Usually a big boat and water is involved.

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