Certainly not unlimited funds. Limited funds… which is why rescues prioritize taking the healthy, easy to rehome, younger horses.
I’m curious what part of the world do you live in that there are no rescues anywhere nearby? How many times have you actually tried to rehome such a horse or are you going off assumptions?
Oh, so if you raised minis, you’d want to sell B one, knowing that she’ll put it in the ground while it’s healthy & relatively young rather than re-home it? Because I would NEVER want one of my animals to go to such a person.
Yes, my opinion is killing a healthy animal with a home waiting is abuse, full stop. And yes, I’d side-eye a vet who went along with this knowing the entire situation. I mean, jesus, we all shudder at those horrible dog owners who try to put Fido to sleep because their new landlord doesn’t allow dogs. We cheer for the vets who smuggle the dogs out, saving their lives. How is this ANY different outside of being worse because the animal in question HAD somewhere to go?
How hard or easy it is to place an animal in a rescue has no baring on this situation. These horses had a home waiting.
I brought up rescues because we, as a society, decided that killing all inconvenient animals without trying to find them homes was morally wrong. We fund rescues so at least they have a CHANCE. These horses had more than a chance, they had a future and B decided that death was better for some reason. That is morally broken to me.
Glad someone here wouldn’t just go popping the blue juice on their healthy animals due to a life change. There is such a huge difference between “hard/expensive/impossible to care for” and middle aged & healthy.
I’d expect any horse lover would TRY to rehome the second and, yeah, if things got desperate enough and there were no openings at the local rescues, call the vet. That’s a tragic situation with a desperate owner.
This was neither. This was “healthy”, this was “years of life in front of them” and this was “had a home waiting”.
The “chance” of something bad will happen down the road should not out weigh all else, otherwise none of us would ever be able to acquire a horse…
So: if the owner, (any owner) is uncomfortable with selling their somewhat older horse to an unknown future, why would they hand it over to a rescue who will turn around and sell it?
Second, w/ respect to rescues I wonder where middle aged mini’s fit on the scale from a rescue’s perspective.
I dont believe the minis were euthanized. My belief is that the owner got an offer that involved her getting some money. She decided to sell them and for some reason decided to say they were dead - perhaps to avoid any issues between potential adopter and new buyer and any " all you care about is money" arguments.
I think the reason many people here are reluctant to pass judgement is because there’s a big piece of the puzzle missing as to why the owner changed her mind. Are the horses less sound than she let on? Did she have questions about the new home, based on previous bad experiences with the person who said she was wiling to take the horses, experiences that she mulled over and ultimately swayed her mind in a different direction? We don’t know the full history or every conversation between these two women, even if they were friends.
There are 100% crazy people in this world who feel they’re the only ones who can care for their animals–hell, any animals–properly, and I’m always horrified to hear when people demand their relatives euthanize young, healthy animals in their wills. But without the owner’s side of the story, we don’t know for certain that’s the case. In this version of events she’s completely irrational, going from welcoming a new home for her horses to locking and barring the gate. That might be true, especially if she’s going through the grief of losing a farm because of finances, but again, we really don’t know if she’s one of those nutty people for sure, until we hear her version of the events.
I’m not really sure “inconvenience” is the right word to describe the rationale behind her actions, though. Sure the most convenient thing would have been to let the animals go for free and move on with her life. She may be selfish, irrational, spiteful, who knows, but she made a great deal of effort to end the arrangement for some reason.
Is it absolutely certain that the animals were put down? Or might she have found another home?
Because the chance at a good future (life) is better than no future(death)? And letting a rescue do the hard work of verifying potential new owners and follow ups and all that is a LOT easier than doing it yourself and is more likely to ensure a good future rather than a bad one?
You didn’t bring up rescues. Equkelly brought up rescues. So you’re Equkelly? Good to know. Pretty funny you’re here replying to yourself, but sure, go ahead. 
That scenario makes the most sense, and would be the fitting piece of the puzzle. Owner gets a cash offer for horses she thinks are too elderly to rehome or sell. Decides to take money. Doesn’t want to explain to lady with the trailer taking them for free (and is afraid lady with trailer will get upset the owner sold horses trailer-lady now regards as rightfully hers).
Really, you’re going to be that pedantic ? I brought up rescues on post 74 on my reply to cutter99, completely separate from any of Equkelly’s discussions but okay…apparently it’s a new rule, only one CoTH poster can ever bring up a topic in a thread…ever! right back at you!
I would like to believe that but it doesn’t compute. How is “sorry, I sent them to live with E instead because I thought it was a better fit” a harder conversation than “yeah, I know I told you to come get them tomorrow but I killed them today, okay, bye, never contact me again” …
To me it makes more sense than her deciding to pay for euthanasia and disposal of three horses rather than waiting one day. Sadly, money is often the answer…
It doesn’t mean the home is bad that she sold them to, though, if that’s the case. The “locking the gate” scenario seems much more like, “keep away from my horses that you think are yours,” rather than the alternative. She might also have been worried that the other woman would have considered her comments about giving the minis to her some sort of a verbal contract, or that she’d demand some of the money from the sale.
Again, there’s a lot of missing pieces here, and this is one of those situations where knowing only one side of the story isn’t enough to make a judgement.
No, you didn’t.
Let me quote post 74 for you here Equkelly, uh, I mean Alter…
Oh no, I was off by one … 
here, post 75 since you seem so invested in it:
Oh my. So much drama.
I just want to say that though there are rescues in my part of the world, there certainly are not rescues standing around waiting to take in three horses just because the owner is moving. If you live somewhere that there is a rescue network able to take horses from an owner not willing to sell then consider yourself very lucky. The rescue pipeline is not always that available. And I will add, the rescue outcome is not always that pretty. (There are threads on this very forum about rescues who then had to be rescued because the rescue neglected the horses.)
On the original topic I think the whole situation is very sad. Exceptionally sad. To me it seems like there is a huge bit of information missing. This is not saying that the OP knows this information and is not telling us, this is information that it appears the OP is not aware of. It seems like there has to be something for someone to go from ‘thank you for taking my horses’ to ‘do not step foot on my property’ over night.
I work hard to try not to judge people for doing what they think is the best decision for their animals. I have had friends not euthanize when I would have. I have had friends euthanize when I would not have.
@cutter99, I too am “that” friend. I choose to feel blessed that those friends trust me to comfort their beloved animal.
Good for you 
But sure, the two people who believe good rescues are plentiful, accommodating, and just tripping over themselves to take in horses have the same acerbic posting style, and one is an admitted alter? Pretty obvious
Because a quality rescue is going to be a non profit therefore there’s no sales commission so nobody is incentivized to put a horse in a bad home. Their JOB is to find forever homes so they’re the ones who are going to be better than that than you or I would.
Also you’re actually helping the rescue offset the cost of the “harder to home” horses when you surrender a healthy easy to manage horses. They can charge a higher adoption fee for the nice, sound, sane, registered horse and that adoption fee goes to helping more animals by almost subsidizing the 25 year old, unrideable, high maintenance guy.
Trust me, if you have a horse that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with and just needs a home, every rescue I know would move that horse to the tippy top of the wait list and it would be adopted out before even getting their picture up on the website. The rescues NEED horses like that because that’s the horse all of their adopters want and that’s rarely the horse that gets people want to surrender.
Also MOST of their horses are owner-surrenders. People think rescues are just full of horses that were beaten and starved/ neglected and Yea thats sometimes the case, but honestly most of them are surrendered from normal responsible horse owners that for one reason or another can’t keep them. Or people realized owning a horse isn’t like owning a golden retriever… that happens too.
But yea, totally no shame in surrendering a healthy sane horse to a rescue. It’s a win-win for everyone.
There’s a big difference between euthanizing an elderly horse with complicated medical issues and 3 middle aged, healthy minis. I’m not sure where you are located but I’m surprised if she found a vet willing to do this.
I do think there is more to this. B might have a controlling, abusive husband. She might have a mental health issue. My guess is that someone offered to buy them, or maybe her husband found out if they went to auction they could get some money for them? If you have any other mutual friends, I’d ask around. And I might not put her on blast on Facebook, but I would have ZERO hesitation in telling anyone else you know as it comes up. The only thing I might have done differently than C, is calling the police to have them do a wellness check. You could even still do that now. Again, I don’t know where you are, but if I was C I might also call animal control. Or I would have that night.
I don’t know. I have zero patience for people that won’t take responsibility for their animals, and in my opinion, convenience euthanasia is 100% not taking responsibility.
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