For most pet owners a good death means painless euthanasia in either a veterinary surgery or at home.

ECONOMIST: Time to go, or perhaps not?

My first (and worst) pet was a newt that choked to death on a bad worm.

NEWYORKER: A Box of Puppies

The city's pet-loving Bohemians are obsessed by the horrible death of a woman mauled by a mastiff.

ECONOMIST: California on the couch

One evening, he found Geronimo, the gecko that hunted on his windowsill, and Cecily, his pet praying mantis, engaged in a fight to the death.

FORBES: Books And Mantids