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It seems like some animals dying of old age and in pain will try to hasten death by starvation - or even suicide in one instance. We had a ferret I had bought for $100 to end the abuse of it being stuck alone in an empty room every day and night in a small pet carrier. Little guy. They are highly social so that was particularly cruel. We got a huge ferret cage and 2 more ferrets so they could play, him a runt.
When old, he stopped eating. Just wouldn't eat. We could force feed him and he'd perk right up, be playful, but refused to eat. He had a tumor (common to ferrets). Nothing prevented him from eating, he just wouldn't. I think he wanted to starve himself to death.
There was a manatee here that had been separated from its pod. They put a tracking buoy on him (he was called Ci Ci - a juvenile.) He stayed mostly on the canal/river behind our house. All day he's swimming back and forth - dragging the buoy - doing spirals - back and forth, back and forth.
If a pod came into the canal, he'd try to join it, but wouldn't be accepted. Maybe the buoy turned the other manatees off or they just don't adopt. One time we used a small boat to clear a path for him - as he tried to stay with a pod heading the couple mile route out to the bay. He swam as fast as he could trying to stay up - having to drag that buoy. But he gave up, unable to keep up, just before the bay. They were not accepting him.
After about a year and a half of being solitary, he tried to kill himself by climbing way up on the bank out of water. He wouldn't be able to breath for long, laying on his own weight, plus would dehydrate and starve quickly. Clearly he was totally desperate and it seemed clear he wanted to die. It was a suicidal act. Fortunately, by the tracking buoy it was detected - and he was taken to a manatee rescue center put into a very large fenced off area of a water with half a dozen other rescue manatees.
I think most animals know when they are dying. They fight for life - but also will give up at some point - just like people do who face protracted terrible disease or illness that increasingly is painful and hopeless.
When old, he stopped eating. Just wouldn't eat. We could force feed him and he'd perk right up, be playful, but refused to eat. He had a tumor (common to ferrets). Nothing prevented him from eating, he just wouldn't. I think he wanted to starve himself to death.
There was a manatee here that had been separated from its pod. They put a tracking buoy on him (he was called Ci Ci - a juvenile.) He stayed mostly on the canal/river behind our house. All day he's swimming back and forth - dragging the buoy - doing spirals - back and forth, back and forth.
If a pod came into the canal, he'd try to join it, but wouldn't be accepted. Maybe the buoy turned the other manatees off or they just don't adopt. One time we used a small boat to clear a path for him - as he tried to stay with a pod heading the couple mile route out to the bay. He swam as fast as he could trying to stay up - having to drag that buoy. But he gave up, unable to keep up, just before the bay. They were not accepting him.
After about a year and a half of being solitary, he tried to kill himself by climbing way up on the bank out of water. He wouldn't be able to breath for long, laying on his own weight, plus would dehydrate and starve quickly. Clearly he was totally desperate and it seemed clear he wanted to die. It was a suicidal act. Fortunately, by the tracking buoy it was detected - and he was taken to a manatee rescue center put into a very large fenced off area of a water with half a dozen other rescue manatees.
I think most animals know when they are dying. They fight for life - but also will give up at some point - just like people do who face protracted terrible disease or illness that increasingly is painful and hopeless.
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