Animal euthanasia

Animal euthanasia (from Ancient Greek: εὐθανασία, lit. 'good death') is the act of killing a nonhuman animal humanely, most commonly with injectable drugs. Euthanasia methods are designed to cause minimal pain and distress. Animal euthanasia is distinct from animal slaughter.

Euthanasia is often used to end an animal's suffering from terminal, incurable (and especially painful) conditions or diseases, when there is a lack of resources to continue supporting the animal, or at the end of laboratory test procedures.

For domesticated animals, the discussion of animal euthanasia is often substituted with euphemisms, such as "put down" or "put to sleep".