Sorry It Just Does Not Sit Right With Me - BHS Mag

[Zebedee]

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PTS

I thought this post was about breeding horses purely for selling for meat.

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No. The OP is objecting to some very sound advice given by the BHS as to the best options should find yourself no longer able to maintain your elderly or unsound younger horse.
In particular she objects to a suggestion that donating the horse for Embryo Transfer (mares only obviously) or to the Equine Blood Bank, as the horse will be destroyed when they get to the age of 15. In her opinion the horse is far better off taking its chances on the companion market, or being given away to a loan home. Of course it then faces an uncertain future. Tthe owner who loved it far too much to have it put to sleep may have unwittingly condemed their much loved horse to such horrors as a two day journey to an Italian abbatoir, but that's apparently ok because at least it's still alive

 

[Natch]

I am getting exasperated with the amount of deliberate misunderstanding going on here. I can't speak for the OP, but my, and I believe several other people's points were not in relation to the situation "should you find yourself no longer able to maintain your elderly or unsound horse" - more that IMO it is not ethical to have a healthy horse PTS for the SOLE reason that they can no longer be worked.

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Tthe owner who loved it far too much to have it put to sleep may have unwittingly condemed their much loved horse to such horrors as a two day journey to an Italian abbatoir, but that's apparently ok because at least it's still alive

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Zebedee, have I missed something ...?

Italian Abbatoirs? Uk horses?

 

[TGM]

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IMO it is not ethical to have a healthy horse PTS for the SOLE reason that they can no longer be worked.


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That is a noble ethic to have if you also agree that it is wrong for animals of other species to be killed for commercial reasons or because they no longer have any 'value' - ie animals killed for meat, dairy cows culled when they can no longer produce the yields, battery chickens despatched when no longer egg-laying etc. If you don't eat meat, dairy and eggs, and therefore don't buy into that 'animals are expendable' culture, then I think you have every right to object to other people doing the same thing with horses.

If not, it does seem weird to make an exception for horses in particular, just because it is a species you have close contact with yourself.

Please note, I am trying to make a difference between what we do personally and what have a right to tell other people to do. For example, I have kept a 'pasture ornament' for 20 years now, several of those years on full livery.

But I don't feel I have the right to say other people are not 'ethical' for euthanising horses at the end of their useful life, whilst I continue to buy into the dairy and egg industry.

 

[Gingerwitch]

As the OP - my intention of the post was to state that i find it very very sad that we appear to be quite happy to pts an older but healthy horse just because it is of no use to the owner anymore. I certainly do not condone shipping off to the sales, passing off as a companion etc just so the owner can go off and buy a new toy.

Are there so few people out their that understand that ?

 

[TGM]

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As the OP - my intention of the post was to state that i find it very very sad that we appear to be quite happy to pts an older but healthy horse just because it is of no use to the owner anymore. I certainly do not condone shipping off to the sales, passing off as a companion etc just so the owner can go off and buy a new toy.

Are there so few people out their that understand that ?

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Oh I quite understand that, but it is a substantially different statement to your opening post! I agree it would be lovely if everyone kept their unrideable horses and looked after them forever, but it is just not going to happen. To many people horses are a means to an end and not pets - in our culture that accepts that animals are expendable I don't think you are going to change that attitude in the foreseeable future.

If the BHS was to make a stand to say that it is unethical for people to euthanise unrideable animals (which is what I presume you are trying to say in your first post), then that will just mean that people will seek other ways to 'dispose' of them, which then results in them being sent to so-called 'companion homes' or put through the sales, with the poor animals being passed from pillar to post and risking ending up in hell-holes like Spindles Farm.

 

[Gingerwitch]

TGM - i think my objection (that obviously did not come accross too well) was that the article was very matter of fact that it made the pts option seam such a "light" one to make. I wish the article had reffered to things like it was a tough decison to be made but it is better than being passed on, rather than make it seam the norm.

And i really hope it is not the norm to just have something pts just because it cant perform anymore., but maybe i am too simple and just cant work out that you can kill something so you can get a better one. I am not critisising people whom have to pts an animal because they can genuinally no longer afford- but i do if they are doing it so they can go off to buy the new younger faster version.