Is it normal to send your horse alive to get put down????????

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fredthoroughbred

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My horse Freds life up until I bought him is a bit of a mystery...He has been mechanically lame since I took him on and I have spent a fortune and too long trying to get to the bottom of this.
I decided that I would contact his ex owner in a bid to find out a bit about his medical history and something very strange has unfolded.
Where I live (although i'm sure it's not perfectly legal) when a horse needs to be pts we either send them off for cremation or simply dig a hole in the field...
Farmkey contacted me yesterday and said his ex owner has been in touch and is competely devestated because he sustained a very seroius injury and she sent him away to be destroyed????????????? Between this happeneing and me taking him on I have no idea how this could have happened. He was re-passported at a dealers and then sold on to riding school where I found him...

Is it normal for this kind of thing to happen down south (Surrey) because I have never heard of this kind of thing up here (Highlands)???

POOR FRED!!!
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Good grief what a dreadful situation
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I think most people put to sleep at home but maybe she knew of a yard he could go to where they'd deal with things? Who knows.
Worth giving her a call tho, poor woman must be so upset.
 
Well........we sent our old boy off with the Hunt to be put down - they came with a lorry and took him away themselves. In a book I once read (Francome, I think) there was a character who worked for the hunt, and when asked to collect and PTS an old hunter, he decided that it still had 'miles on the clock' and he secretly sold it on, without the owner's knowledge. Now, I have NO idea if this type of thing goes on in real life - that was just fiction after all - but I would hazard a guess that it probably does. It could explain what happened to your horse - his owner may have contacted someone in good faith, believing that they would take her horse to be PTS straight away, only for them to think that they could make a bit of a profit out of it. Very sad, and very wrong, but I would imagine that it happens.
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How absolutely awful. For you, previous owner and the horse.
Yes you can send a horse alive to be PTS, Potters etc. are examples.
Obviously somewhere down the line something has gone very badly wrong, and if I were the previous owner I would be wanting to ask a lot of questions of the abbatoir and the transport company that took it there.
 
There's a place near here with loads of horses & ponies in fields... I think they collect them alive then give them a while turned out in the fields 'to relax' before doing the deed... not sure what the meats used for in the end, dread to think!
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OMG that's awful - for everyone involved (including the horse!), I would be mightly p'd off if I'd spent a fortune on trying to sort a horse out that was originally destined to be PTS. I would on the other hand be gutted for the previous owner. What a terrible situation. Will Farmkey give you previous owners details or pass on yours? What are your plans for the horse now? BTW which dealer did he come from?
 
It is quite normal for some people to send them to an abattoir, hunt kennels to be cremated as some people don't wish to have the memories of there horse being put down at home, some livery yards don't like horses being shot or PTS on the premises etc but by the sounds of things in this case the people in charge of disposing of the horse if they were a proper horse disposal service have certainly bent some rules there! if the horse was signed over to be destroyed and they could get into trouble for this. However some horses can be taken by the knacker man and sold on as I've seen many horses gong through the sales if nothing has been agreed and they would not being doing anything wrong legally and in some cases the knacker man is not always the bad guy, some do actually save many horses that they feel would have a chance in life and have sold them on...many which are now in good homes but they should act responsibly when deciding the fate of a horse.

Sounds like a very unfortunate case and hope things work out for you.
 
Sadly it does happen. My brother in law worked for an abotoir. It is commonplace i am afraid. Even when people have took their horses/ponies there themselves they have not always been pts. I must say thow i have only heard of sound ones and donkeys not being pts. Some have gone on and competed!
Sadly this situation is different. How devastateing for the old owner.
When i had Florin shot the slauterman asked for someone to be there so they coiuld reasure me it went well. He said afterwards people have a lot of questions. I thought i wouldn't but i did.
Justshows its not just the shoddy place my brother in-law worked in. He has left his wife now and moved away so i no longer hear the 'inside' stories. Which i am actually pleased about.
What is happening now? Poor you and horse. Passports are a waste of time most of the time.
 
Sorry to be really contentious; but if you care and respect for a horse you see it thro yourself and save the injured animal the fear of being carted off in a lorry somewhere unknown with people you dont know either, just because either you cant face the situation or its going to work out cheaper!
 
QR - I was told (from 40 years ago) that you should always witness your animal being shot just to avoid this.

When I got back into horses some 6 years ago now I was told the same thing - that one of our local knackers was inclined to sell horses on for a further profit. I'm also aware that he was unhappy about being made to shoot an acquaintance's beautiful, quiet and on occasion totally psycho mare on site. She was going for behavioural problems which made her a danger to herself and her rider but they didn't show frequently and she'd have been an obvious candidate to sell on.

So I'm very very sorry for you and Fred, and also for the previous owner. What a dreadful situation for you all to find yourselves in.
 
im afraid some people do this, i do think its dreadful that its done, but you do get money for it as well. I would NEVER consider this as a means to end any of my horses lives im afraid but i guess we are all entitled to our different ways in life. My old girl was pts quietly in my sandschool i had her for 22 years and a beautiful ending it was long live her memory.
 
I had to send mine of alive because the yard that he was kept on refused to let me have it done there. However, I stayed with him until it was done to avoid what has happened to you happening. So yes they do take them alive.
 
A friend of mine bought a horse and when the passport arrived found out it had been passported by Potters. They had to have the horse pts about a year later as it kept going lame so I'm afraid this does happen. Poor you though, what an awful situation to be in.
 
Good Grief...

i'd be livid if i was his previous owner.

as has been said, the normal practice is they are taken to the abbatoir, and dispatched..

i've not personally left an animal there, prefering to see them shot before picking up the headcollar and coming home..aviods this situation completely..

am assuming his previous owner received payment for his "death"...so i'm wondering where the breakdown in the chain of events was??
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Thankyou all very much for this information. So it does sound like this kind of things happens...WOW...and after reading some of your stories I am finding it very difficult to place poor Fred in this horrid situation. He is a very very sensitive horse and I agree with a few of you that you should at least go with or get someone you know to go with your horse if this is to happen!!!

In response to what will happen now, Farmkey has said that his old owner is distraught but will eventually contact me (Farmkey passed on all of my contact details) so I am going to wait until I get his previous medical history and have some insight into what was involved with his "serious injury".

Fred in himself is a very happy, content horse and enjoys his life to the full, I haven't ridden him in eight months because the vets have been trying to get to the bottom of his problem but I don't see why, just because someone else wanted him destroyed, I should do the same thing. I will play it by ear but for now he is galloping around his field with his friends and not looking to be in any pain whatsoever.

The dealer was located in the west country and I think they are called Quarryfield or Quarrystone or something. Do you think they bought him off the abbitoir directly because the woman in Surrey got rid of him in 2005 and then he went was at the dealers and sold in early 2006 to the riding school where I picked him up...

He makes an excellent pet though
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How horrible! Was it Quarrystone Stables near Kingsbridge in Devon? I bought an unbroken cob from there last year, and have had a few problems with him - he was passported by them too. Does a passport need to be sent with a disposal company? Or is it returned to the issuing authority?
 
We encountered a similar thing a few years back. When we tried to trace a previous owner for similar reasons to yourself it all came to light that the passport was false and she had been chipped twice. Our vet eventually found her proper chip and from that we traced her back to the Netherlands. Her previous owners were horrified and I think none too pleased that she was still alive as they had sent her to be slaughtered and it seems the person that took her away in the lorry passed her on to someone else as he didn't have time to finish the journey and from there she was bought at the slaughter sales by a dealer in England. In fact the infamous DAVID THOMAS & DAGMAR BLICK. If you haven't heard of them do a wee search on Google. We are one of hundreds that ended up with the same story. We are in Scotland. I know of four others near where we are that bought from the same dealer in the same way and all with similar problems.
 
Totally agree with Shauna. I would NEVER EVER send a horse or any animal for that matter to one of these places.
Every horse in my care would be put down by the vet AT HOME with the people he knows around him. Fredthoroughbred, your owner sounds lovely and so refreshing to find someone who will let you live out your days happily even if you cannot give anything back in the way of riding.
 
I remember seeing Watchdog on tv about a horse dealer and one of the horses on there had been sold on as a 'safe hack' which had been bought by the dealer on the way to slaughter.
It's a terrible thing to happen. What a shock for you and the previous owner. At least Fred has fallen on his feet with you as you have obviously spend time and money, and want the best for him.
 
Of course this happens, there is a knackerman in the Bucks are who has been prosecuted by Trading Standards - he was supposed to transport horsed live to be PTS at Hunt Kennels and elsewhere, when ashes were returned they were found be bovine, amongst other things and there was no guarantee that the horse hadn't been sold on.

The only way to be certain is to have the horse PTS at home or to take it somewhere and stay until it is done.

Fred probably never went near the abattoir.
 
Well I hope more than anything that he never went to the abbitoir!! I can't bare to think of it
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Cornish and Smoochy, yes this is the same yard and I know when the riding school bought Fred, they also bought another two or three off Quarrystones. All the horses had problems!! Am I right in thinking that he usually deals with gypsy/coloured cobs?? Poor horses
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Good grief; what stories our horses might tell if only they could speak.

Still, in one sense, what a small miracle; he ended up in your hands and you have given him several happy years. His guardian angel must have worked overtime to bring that about!
 
I know someone who went to see a horse for sale once only to find a student's old horse standing in the cross ties! The horse had been sent to a retirement facility, which then told the owner one day that he had been critically injured and had had to be put down immediately. Apparently not so much . . .

It does happen. It happens with horse sent to be PTS and it certainly happens with horses sold as "companions" and retirees. The only way anyone can guarantee a horse's safety is to keep control of it until the end.
 
OMG, I've never *touch wood* lost a horse so not been in the situation where I have to get them PTS. Its one of those things that you just think you can trust people with. This is just horrible. Poor Fred, hopefully from the information you get you'll be able to get to the bottom of his problems and he'll have many more years galloping about in your fields
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i can't even begin to think how traumatizing this must be for all involved.

whilst putting your horse down is obviously not at all nice, at least you are in control and its final. although i still kept thinking oh god, what will happen when she gets there (as in crematorium), and essentially there is no need to think abou tthat, but i was worried that she'd be scared?!?! having said that, i still look at the weather and subconciously think what rugs i'll put on the next day or night!

i think he is one extremely lucky horse to be happy and healthy, if not a little crooked, having gone through all of that. any other horse in that situation would probably not be that lucky
 
Gosh, this is awful! and obviously we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg.
I can imagine that Fred's original owner will be distraught! I would be the same!
Poor Fred.
I agree though, just because he was doomed to be PTS before doesn't mean it has to be fulfilled now. He has had a good life with you, living on borrowed time.
If you are able to keep him as a field ornament, then go for it!
 
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