When people can’t feed a horse because they can’t afford the price of hay, they aren’t going to come up with the $400+ it takes to have a vet euthanize and fee for disposal. That’s why Sound Equine Options started their program in the first place (I think around 2010 or so, during the economic downturn) to help ease the suffering that they were seeing.
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And for people who can’t afford it or won’t budget for it so horses languish for months or years?
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I have a 30 yo mare that I am putting down soon. She is very thin, has bad joints and I will not put her through another midwest winter. My husband will use a gun, he is a hunter and former law enforcement officer who has had to euthanized a number of large animals during his career. He also did 2 horses of ours in emergency situations. Deaths were instantaneous. I plan to compost the body. I have all the materials and from what I have read it is clean, effective and ecologically sound. I had used a rendering works in the past but they no longer pick up horses.
I am dreading all of this but it has to be done. Sometimes owning animals and doing right by them sucks.
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How much does it cost to have a horse cremated?
I am talking to a vet about disposal options for a euthanasia appointment for my older horse. He said $1 / lb for cremation. For a 1300 lb horse, that is $1300. That is in addition to the fee for the person who will pick up the remains $300 and whatever the vet would charge.
So, not inexpensive.
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It does suck…mine is only 27, but last winter was hard on her, she is going downhill…I would rather make the decion now, than have a -40*c emergency to deal with…it is just so damn hard.
I am haunted by the spectre of my old dog, I should have made the call…I left it to long…
Then they are responsible for the consequences. Morally, ethically, and legally.
Sometimes you have to let a burden lie where it falls. If an owner can.t keep a horse to a minimum standard then they have to sell, gift, or euthanize the horse. It is not the duty of the general public to make the decision for them or relieve them of that burden. In every place where I have experience there is a “buyer of last resort” for horses. That’s usually a trip to the kill pen. While some think that is a bad choice their opinion is just that, an opinion. There are other opinions.
G.
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I know a group who does euthanasia clinics in Colorado. They also buy old broken down horses from the livestock sale and will euthanise them if they need it. So it actually saves resources by not having to pay the $$ to buy them from the sale.
“The public” provides this service for cats and dogs and other animals in the form of public animal shelters. With the elimination of horse slaughter facilities in the US, it is only humane to stretch this to equines, too, since they are widely thought of as PETS instead of livestock.
We need an outlet for unwanted equines here. Packing them up and hauling them to Mexico or Canada isn’t humane or particularly sustainable as counties that consume horsemeat say they don’t want ours due to contamination and welfare groups here put more and more pressure on hauling truckloads long distance in packed conditions.
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Scenario for you. About a decade ago I rode at a barn where a young adult (kid was maybe 18, 19 at most) boarded her horse. Her horse was an old, grey TB, riddled with melanoma. The girl had a troubled life, dropped out of school, run away from home, was couch surfing and barely making it. She was ‘under-employed’ - she worked at a barn making less than minimum wage, was living hand to mouth, had no education or skills to better her situation. She didn’t even have transportation, as she couldn’t afford a car, and had to rely on rides to and from work and to the barn.
Her horse was going downhill. His health was in a decline from the cancer. She really needed to put him down, but she didn’t have the $1000-$1200 the vet and removal services would cost, and she didn’t have land to bury him.
I will never forget that situation. I was young and poor myself at the time, and couldn’t help. I always felt bad for that girl and that horse in that awful, no-win situation.
People end up in all kinds of financially difficult circumstances, for many reasons. Illness, loss of employment, loss of mobility, divorce, loss of spouse, etc. I think it’s really unfair to think that everyone can always fulfill the duties of ownership. Life happens.
I for one would support societal funding for equine euthanasia in circumstances where the owner does not have the funds to allow for a necessary and peaceful passing. It’s a terrible place to be in.
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This should be available. I hate to say it and would never do it, but you can drop a cat or dog off at the shelter…there needs to be some sort of “assistance” for people and horses in end of life situations wether it be clinics or honestly I think a much kinder option would be bucket of grain and bullet in familiar surroundings by someone trained and authorized then the remains could possibly be used to feed zoo animals or at least would not be toxic when buried. @Guilherme’s quote bothers me more than I can put into words…was any consideration ever given to people who were suddenly faced with a situation where they had little or no time to choose between putting their savings towards trying to save the animal or euthanasia because if they tried to save them and were not successful there might not be enough money left to bury them? or situations where the horse’s prognosis was excellent, but expensive…and then there was a crazy unexpected complication. The bottom line is dealing with a horse is much more complex and expensive than dealing with a dog or cat or other small animal that you can keep “comfortable” and “properly dispose of” much easier/cheaper and there should be some alternatives.
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I’m going to have to remove myself from this thread. The visceral disgust I feel reading @Guilherme 's is impossible to articulate without saying things that would get me banned. Justifying animals suffering because of a twisted desire to punish people of lesser means is repulsive.
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