Totally agree. My vet would never do this either. He will not dock dogs' tails or ears or declaw cats.  Once I came in just at the tail end of an argument with a woman she stormed out. He told me that the owner of a small healthy dog had died. Two months later the woman (who was the daughter of the owner) had come in and told him he wanted the animal 'put down' because she didn't like it and it was a nuisance. He asked her instead to sign the dog over to him. Which she did so with alacrity. The vet knew of an older couple who had just lost their small dog. He called them and they joyfully adopted the little dog. The daughter now shows up demanding he return the dog because one of her grandchildren now wanted a dog and rather than buy one she wanted the old one back. He refused. She threw a fit and said she would sue him. She never did.