Horses PTS After Floods

firstly it's impossible to determine what the poor lady actually said-the press are notorious for excavating handy quotes which may have been taken out of context.

I was discussing this story with a (non horsey) colleague at work today. he asked why people would do that when they wouldn't do it to a child; sadly there's no welfare state for animals who wind up in unfortunate situations.

sounds from the article (with the appropriate pinches of salt as noted above) that the poor livery owner was left with little choice but to put her horses down in part to save her business.

incredibly sad and a very brave decision. my heart goes out to her. she must have felt in a terribly desperate situation. such a shame she could not see another way. I hope the floods disappear soon!!
 
sorry one other thing-if you look on the map at where the yard is based as compared to the flood plain you can see that there really was very little hope to keep the water at bay
 
Leviathan said:
I think it is sad and drastic to pts due to flooding, we are all in the same boat, surely last year she must have some floods etc not to this extent no. Why not look in to the cause of flooding blocked drains or invest better drainage,
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have you seen the pictures of some of the places in Surrey that have flooded? they are right in the flood plain and hence totally underwater with nowhere for the floods to go! there is simply too much water for the ground that has been constructed on to take!

not quite so simple as "getting someone else to sort it out" sadly this is the problem with building on places that should be left to be flood plains.
 
Leviathan said:
I think it is sad and drastic to pts due to flooding, we are all in the same boat, surely last year she must have some floods etc not to this extent no. Why not look in to the cause of flooding blocked drains or invest better drainage, sheesh my back yard looked like that and a stable flooded. As someone else said get to the bottom of the cause .... sorry think it was more haste less investigation.

Can't help noticing she has brand new gates in photo, why not use that money to get Dyno Rod to blast trough the drains to allow better drainage
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Invest in better drainage. The drainage system in flooded areas can not cope with amount of rain we are having so has nowhere under ground to go so suggesting she should of got Dyno Rod out is as much use as a chocolate teapot
 
undertheweather said:
I think she did the right thing in terms of her own finances and ensuring her horses' future wellbeing.
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I think its an odd general thought on here that putting a horse to sleep is seen as a "good thing" to do because it "ensures their future". But the thing is, there are people out there who could have given these horses perfectly good homes. Just because they're older, there are people out there who take on older horses. So many seem to think they'll automatically end up in horrid homes if older horses are sold which I find quite strange. You can never ensure the future of ANY horse, let alone an unrideable or older horse. If she could not afford the horse, IMO she should have tried her hardest to rehome the horse first and being PTS should have been the absolute last option. Why couldnt she simply have rented a field and put them in that?

One of my horses is 15, he is very slightly lame (all checks done, cannot find a cause) so he can now only hack (was competing). I hate hacking so it would have been unfair for me to keep him when he still had a job which he enjoyed. It took me 6 months but I eventually found him a lovely home where he is on permanent loan, so should anything happen I could take him back, but hopefully he will remain there enjoying gentle hacks. I bet many people would have PTS in this situation.

I also have a serious flooding problem in my stables - just built a brand new stable block and one of the two stables I use is under water and has been for a month now. Going to cost a few grand to sort the problem, which I currently dont have. So I will just make do (not use that stable) until I can afford it.
 
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But we don't know that they were pts "just because they were older". Someone else on here has stated the horses had health problems and we don't know the extent of them. I have a 21 year old Cushings pony, she costs me nearly £3 a day for medication and has to be kept on very restricted turnout, I really cannot imagine there would be people queuing up to take her on :(.
 
MagicMelon said:
I think its an odd general thought on here that putting a horse to sleep is seen as a "good thing" to do because it "ensures their future". But the thing is, there are people out there who could have given these horses perfectly good homes. Just because they're older, there are people out there who take on older horses. So many seem to think they'll automatically end up in horrid homes if older horses are sold which I find quite strange. You can never ensure the future of ANY horse, let alone an unrideable or older horse. If she could not afford the horse, IMO she should have tried her hardest to rehome the horse first and being PTS should have been the absolute last option. Why couldnt she simply have rented a field and put them in that? One of my horses is 15, he is very slightly lame (all checks done, cannot find a cause) so he can now only hack (was competing). I hate hacking so it would have been unfair for me to keep him when he still had a job which he enjoyed. It took me 6 months but I eventually found him a lovely home where he is on permanent loan, so should anything happen I could take him back, but hopefully he will remain there enjoying gentle hacks. I bet many people would have PTS in this situation.

I also have a serious flooding problem in my stables - just built a brand new stable block and one of the two stables I use is under water and has been for a month now. Going to cost a few grand to sort the problem, which I currently dont have. So I will just make do (not use that stable) until I can afford it.
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I think it's a bit unrealistic to expect anyone in an emergency situation to find a field to rent when locally they are probably either flooded, unavailable or too expensive. Especially if you are already seriously in debt, it is rather foolish to get yourself further into debt.

As I understand the horses all had health issues, so may not have been suitable for hacking.

If homes are so readily available, then why are there over 7.000 unwanted equines in this country? When you don't have the time available to find a home, which may or may not be available then I think she's done the only thing she could.

Until you've walked a mile in another man's shoes and all that, I think it's unfair to say she should have soldiered on regardless of her financial, emotional and indeed her horse's well being.
 
It's easy to judge more difficult to walk a mile in her shoes .
And as others have said we don't know what the health problems are .
You just cannot compare a lame fifteen yo being rehomed with all the time in the world to this situation with four horses and the worse flooding for many years .

I don't know if they have bought their place and if running livery was part of their plan to afford to pay for it if it is their position may be very very difficult .
I well very sorry for everybody in this flood whether they own or rent their homes whether they are poor or very rich ( and can afford nice gates , that comment made me laugh ) there is something so horrible in having your home destroyed that levels everybody .
 
If the horses had health problems, of course that changes things. That wasn't mentioned in the article so we can't make comments on that. I can imagine how dreadful it must be to be properly flooded like so many of you are down south. But for me, my horses are incredibly important and based on what is said in the article, I wouldnt have put the horses down. I'm not saying by any means that there are plenty of homes out there for horses, absolutely not. I know the market has changed completely to how it used to be. I'm just saying I would have tried my best to go down this route first.
 
Oh I agree Magic melon, I would have probably tried to find somewhere too, but perhaps she has already been down that route and not been successful? We really don't know all the details surrounding the situation, and I really don't believe that pts is the worst thing that can happen to a horse and I'd rather see that happen than some of the other possible outcomes sadly.
 
touchstone said:
I think it's a bit unrealistic to expect anyone in an emergency situation to find a field to rent when locally they are probably either flooded, unavailable or too expensive. Especially if you are already seriously in debt, it is rather foolish to get yourself further into debt.

As I understand the horses all had health issues, so may not have been suitable for hacking.

If homes are so readily available, then why are there over 7.000 unwanted equines in this country? When you don't have the time available to find a home, which may or may not be available then I think she's done the only thing she could.

Until you've walked a mile in another man's shoes and all that, I think it's unfair to say she should have soldiered on regardless of her financial, emotional and indeed her horse's well being.
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well put and fully agree
 
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