It's called a clean kill. And the man took responsibility for his own animal.
Obviously you've never had to put an animal down.
There are many that cringe at the thought and they should be welcome to pay their vet to do it. However some of us have and will in the future when time renders it necessary. What's wrong is that the squeamish are going to force their view to the point that I will be a criminal for a clean, close up shot, even though I will be bawling my eyes out as I dig a hole next to where kitty, gizmo, christie or chia are already buried.
...or spent time on a REAL farm where the realities of that type of life are very harsh. Where the kids will help their dad with the chore of putting down a choice head of cattle they helped raise since it was a day old calf, then hauled into the barn to be gutted then processed for the freezer. Or the choice hog they raised since it was a piglet and destined for the pig roast the following weekend........
Maybe I’m old school and country, but being a hunter and having butchered cows, pigs, etc., I’m missing out on why a vet had to do this. Used to be people did this for themselves. I can certainly think of a quicker and more direct way to do this (in fact several), but as sad as this is, it’s not criminal. If people knew how the beef on their plate gets there they would know that a cow gets killed in much the same way at an abattoir. Minus our war on some drugs, the guy could have done it by himself for the price of a syringe and some barbiturates - $10 max. As you’ve noted, some people just can’t handle reality.