I am also in the U.S. and I do treat my dogs as family and I do not crate them. However, the person you are replying to does not treat their dog as family. They think they do, but they don’t. They told a story on another thread on this governor about their own dog (which I initially misread) which included this part:
I thought about having the vet put him to “sleep” but I didn’t like that either. He didn’t deserve to be injected with strange drugs in a strange place by strangers. I chose to take him home, give him a rather large dose of xanax and smother him with my hand while telling him what an amazing boy he was.