Uber Pets Driver Picks Up A Puppy Going To The Vet To Get Euthanized — Asks Other People Not To Judge The Owner
“We’ve all made mistakes in our life, and I’m just glad that I was there on this day.”
antoniodiaz / Shutterstock When a woman entered an Uber with her young dog, the driver asked where they were headed. When she learned that the woman was taking the dog to get euthanized, her heart sank.
She decided at that moment that she had to save the sweet boy from his demise and adopt him as her own.
Now, she has an important message for those who are branding the dog’s original owner as cruel and heartless.
The Uber Pet driver adopted the dog, Tiger, after she learned that his owner was taking him to be euthanized.
Hope Singh (@hope_singh) works as an Uber Pet driver, which is basically equivalent to a regular Uber driver except for the fact that they allow pets in their cars and earn an extra fee for accepting rides with pets.
During her first shift as an Uber Pet driver, Singh picked up a woman with her 6 to 7-month-old male puppy. When Singh gushed over the animal, the woman sadly told her that it was “not a good day” for him.
When she asked her why, the woman told her that she was taking the dog to have him euthanized.
Feeling her heartstrings being pulled, Singh asked the woman if she could call her husband to ask him if they could take the dog.
Thankfully, everything worked out, and instead of being euthanized, Tiger has found his forever family!
The overwhelming response was critical of the puppy's original owner.
While some viewers congratulated Singh on her adorable new member of the family, most people demanded to know why the woman was euthanizing a seemingly healthy puppy.
Some even went as far as to label her as completely heartless and evil for appearing to do so without an explanation.
However, according to Singh, there was a perfectly reasonable explanation, and it might make people think twice before judging.
The dog’s owner was a domestic violence survivor living in a hotel and could no longer care for the dog.
In a follow-up TikTok video, Singh encouraged people to have empathy for the woman rather than judge her.
“I’ve seen a lot of very nasty comments, and I think that we should all just have a little more grace for each other,” she said. “We’ve all made mistakes in our life, and I’m just glad that I was there on this day.”
The dog’s owner told Singh that she had been in an abusive relationship and that the dog was given to her by her ex-boyfriend as an apology present. When she escaped her ex, she brought the dog with her, but she was living in a hotel, which made the situation worse.
“She was not in the place financially or physically to take care of the dog,” Singh says. “She was living in a hotel, and he didn’t have the room to run around, so obviously, he had a lot of built-up energy.”
The hotel was going to kick the puppy's original owner out if she didn't get rid of the dog.
Eventually, the dog went stir-crazy and chewed through the pipes in the hotel room bathroom. When management discovered that the woman had a dog, they gave her an ultimatum: either get rid of the dog or be kicked out of the hotel.
Having no family to take her in or anyone willing to take the dog, the woman felt she had no choice but to put him down.
“They [the hotel] were also gonna start charging her an extra amount every week for the dog,” Singh added. The woman was already nearing financial ruin after paying for the damage to the pipes the dog had caused and continuing to pay for the hotel room every day.
She also did not get to spend much time with the dog and give him the proper care he needed since she was working 12-hour shifts.
“It was very clear that this young girl was in a bad situation,” Singh said.
The original owner was overjoyed that the Uber driver wanted to rescue her puppy.
When Singh called her husband and told him about the situation, he gave his wife the okay to bring home the dog that same day.
Singh said that the woman was ecstatic that her dog had found a forever family and was now going to live a long and happy life. “She’s so happy he found a home because she said she didn’t want to go through with it [the euthanasia],” Singh reported.
Singh couldn't help but think that she was fated to have the dog since she had only been working as an Uber driver for three weeks and had signed up to be an Uber Pets driver two days earlier.
She is looking forward to having Tiger as part of her family, describing him as “a good boy.” In a follow-up video, she shared, “He does have severe separation anxiety and abandonment issues, but that’s to be expected.”
Although it's easy to judge the dog's original owner, the Uber driver pointed out the power of understanding and empathy.
While it can be easy to assume that people who surrender their dogs to a shelter or take them to get euthanized when they can no longer care for them are selfish and heartless, we should not place judgment on them without knowing the whole story.
Many critics argued that she should have surrendered the dog to a shelter before choosing to euthanize, but statistics show that the pup would likely have met the same fate. In 2023, 359,000 dogs were euthanized in shelters for no reason other than overcrowding. Sadly, this number is at a five-year peak thanks to the after-effects of pandemic adoptions and the subsequent financial crisis.
It was clear that this woman loved her dog very much but simply did not have the financial or physical means to give him the life he deserved.
By chance, she was able to find someone who was.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.