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Post by muddy boots on Dec 26, 2011 21:15:44 GMT 1
Just heard about a large group of horses belonging to an elderly man who couldnt physically look after them anymore.The man had tried to get help from charities who turned him away because the horses didnt have passports, these were healthy horses! can someone explain to me why a charity will spend thousands on a companion horse which may need medication for life and not be 100% happy,but not on ones which could be passported and then rehomed??They have all been destroyed!!
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Post by portiabuzz on Dec 26, 2011 21:25:49 GMT 1
:-( horrible
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Post by ladyndibs on Dec 26, 2011 22:13:37 GMT 1
I don't know the details but there have been a couple of horror stories like this circulating in the last year that have turned out to be scams, coiuld this be one?
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Post by barbararob on Dec 26, 2011 22:15:13 GMT 1
very sad, but maybe there were other circumstances. A council close to us, confiscated some ponies from an unfit owner, paid their livery, paid for vets, micro chip and passports, these were not valuable ponies, but someone came out fighting for them. Sounds like their was no one in the corner to fight for these. Or maybe because they had a owner, that they thought him or his family should take resposibility....and the cynical me says maybe there wasn't a big enough media story in it! RIP horses
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Post by jill on Dec 26, 2011 22:29:42 GMT 1
If someone asks me to take a horse (family of owner deceased, for example) I always request that they obtain passports if they don't have them - I simply can't afford the outlay, especially now with the requirement for a microchip. I have never had one refused yet, even old Charlie whose carers had inherited him and never really owned him. Of course, if anyone could sponsor me getting them done, and renting more land and getting paid help, I would be happy to take them - I have very very little in the way of funding, and many charity donations dried up across the board many months ago. Why would the elderly owner not obtain passports for these horses - financially no more expensive than having them PTS and disposed of. I suspect there is more to this than meets the eye - but in any case, pretty much all sanctuaries are full to overflowing right now, there are just too many horses around. In all honesty, if no sanctuary could take them (and I suspect that is more likely than the passport reason) humane destruction may well be better than having them passed from pillar to post, through sales, several times, before maybe ending up with the meat men. There are worse fates that death, and I do think we all need to bear that in mind sometimes, rather that keeping horses alive because we can't admit defeat.
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Post by portiabuzz on Dec 26, 2011 22:41:09 GMT 1
Interesting point there jill x
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esther
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Post by esther on Dec 27, 2011 8:02:40 GMT 1
Ditto Jill. Also the fact that this elderly gent had 'a lot' of horses with no help indicates that he had a bit of a hoarding problem long before the fact that he was 'elderly' complicated things. Was he breeding? If the horses were pretty feral that may have also affected the decision to put them down. It's one thing taking on and rehoming a bulk load of well behaved riding ponies, but it's another taking on a bulk load of virtually feral unbroken horses who have had minimal handling. The homes just aren't there. Just because they are 'healthy' doesn't make them 'easy'.
Nb Someone I used to work for was getting on in years and she had a beautiful healthy gelding put down because of her own advancing age. She'd bred him and had a lot of success with him in the show ring in hand. However, he'd had an accident getting cast in his stable aged 3 and had completely ragged his hip and sacroilliac. Although things had outwardly healed, when it came to break him in he went uncharacteristically ballistic. The vet confirmed that work was making him sore and that he should be a field ornament. So she gave him another 12 months being a pet and then called it a day. Her reasoning: If I die tomorrow someone will see his show ring success, they will see his lovely pedigree, and they will try and ride him. I bred him. I am responsible for him. While he is here and I am alive, he is safe and he can live free from pain. But once I am gone, I cannot look out for him. The other horses are all straightforward and would be easy to rehome, but he is special.
Several people muttered under their breath about her when she did it, but I think she did the right thing. It certainly wasn't an easy decision to make.
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arki
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Post by arki on Dec 27, 2011 9:18:36 GMT 1
I totally agree with Jill and Esther while it may be hard to see apparently healthy horses destroyed it is so much better than the possible alternatives. IN the summer I had my old TB pts and I had comments from people for years why hadn't I ridden him - it was just a waste him sitting in the field but I knew him best - he didn't want to be ridden he had suffered too much at the hands of people and wanted to be left alone. When he got to the point at the age of 21 when he didn't enjoy life anymore I decided enough was enough and decided not to put him through another winter. Perhaps it was a couple of years too late but I am so glad that I could give him that. I think we forget that as long as it is done humanely the horse knows nothing about being PTS so much better than being passed from pillar to post. Not everyone is as a kind x
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Post by sandy on Dec 27, 2011 17:18:03 GMT 1
Absolutely agree with Jill, Esther and Arki - a quick, humane death is far better than a very uncertain future.
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Post by portiabuzz on Dec 27, 2011 20:07:41 GMT 1
Sad but true....:-(
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