Decided to use the blog to comment on a news story this week about the two old horses that were put down as part of the will of their owner who had died. It's contraversial, I know, but here's another viewpoint, and I dont write this to invite comment or animal rights email - it's just a blog.

Back in the way-back-when, when I used to ride work for a hunting stables - the elderly gent whose horses were my particular job shocked my fluffy thellwell heart to the core when he told me that his 2 hunters were to be put down when he died. I could hardly speak to him I was so upset, I felt this was a terrible reward for horses who had given him a lifetime's service - he had had both from very young. He could see I was upset and explained it to me thusly: he could not bear to think of his two veterans being passed from hand to hand down the chain, as expenses for keeping them gradually rose and people who had taken them on failed to realise the costs, until finally they ended their lives suffering miserably in the back of the knackers van shoved in with 5 or 6 others terrified out of their wits to be put down as part of a long queue in an abattoir. In his way, he said, they would end their days with dignity at home and minimum suffering with an injection and then cremation - rather than going for dog food. Some 3 years later, the gent discovered he had an inoperable brain tumour and, true to his word, both horses were put down before he himself died, with him holding their heads. They were not young by any stretch when this happened, and well passed their hunting days of course. I admit to still being mutely horrified that he did this, but I think I understand his reasons. He really truly felt that noone could look after his horses the way he did - and he was right, they had every comfort known to horse and jockey - and so he did the best he could for them when he knew he was going to die, and was present to have his wishes carried out.

I know how much our own veteran doberman costs to keep, and its steep and getting steeper all the time. It's something we do because of love, because we wont fail her now just because she's old, smelly, forgetful and tatty. But the other side of this coin is that sometimes you have to take heartbreaking decisions as well, we know that it's not going to be long before we too have to take that awful decision, and is it fair to the dog for us to carry on saying 'her quality of life is still good' when clearly it isn't - because the alternative is simply too awful to contemplate.