Nobody forced him to put his dog to sleep. He could have moved. Sell the co-op, buy a house in Bayonne.
“Could have moved”? First of all, the NYC real estate market right now is crap. Homes for sale aren’t moving, and if they are, it’s for far less than the original asking price. Second, you need a down payment to buy a new home, and perhaps this OUT OF WORK young man lacked enough funds for that. Third, NYC shelters are FULL of pit bulls and pit crosses thanks to drug dealer scum and ghetto trash backyard breeders, so the no-kill places must turn you away. If he had brought the dog to a city shelter, it would have been euthanized within 3 days. I suppose he thought at least he could be with his pal at the end if he did it himself.
So don’t give out pat, glib answers. You only embarrass yourself by showing how thoughtless you are. Walk a mile in someone else’s moccasins, you might be less likely to condemn.
I felt HORRIBLE about this story all the way around, and I condemn no one except the SHALLOW VICIOUS neighbors. They should rot in hell for putting an already pressured young man under more pressure that he didn’t need. They could not even spell the word “compassion”, let alone practice some. Sometimes a pet is all you have and all that keeps you hanging on. Check the medical literature.