08/14/2026
💔Sometimes the kindest choices are the most difficult ones we are forced to make. 💔
We had a vet visit recently to pull fresh coggins on a few of the horses and to do some quality of life checks. The horses mostly behaved for their blood draws. Let’s face it, no one likes getting poked. Then we moved onto the quality of life assessments.
❤️🩹First up was Oakley. She has had a persistent dry cough since she’s been here. Comes and goes. No real triggers that I’ve been able to pin point. Knowing her age, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t heart related. Oakley isn’t the tallest at maybe 14.1ish but she is as stout as a rhino and she knows it!! She’s usually good for me for when I need to handle her for basic care needs. Not so much today for the vet. After a fair bit of a tantrum and a dose of sedation, we were able to listen to her lungs and heart. Her lungs are severely scarred which is likely what’s causing the cough. Thankfully her heart sounds good!! Our vet said “if you’re willing to continue putting up with all that, you probably have a couple more healthy years with her!” Of course the happy tears fell, and I said “I don’t mind at all!” Oakley has made quite the impact on me since being here so knowing I didn’t need to worry about her quality of life for a while was music to my ears. Oakley will continue to remain a sanctuary resident with the rescue for as long as we are able to safely provide care.
💔Ivy was next. She came up lame a couple months ago. No signs of trauma, swelling, etc. Just really lame. She never got much better. Ivy is also a horse that while ok in a herd setting, is extremely dangerous around people. She has a very long and unfortunate history of being aggressive toward people. She won’t hesitate to pin you and double barrel kick. She has also charged and jumped on top of people as well. This just isn’t something we can allow. A horse that’s unpredictably dangerous. Through tears, we made the choice to have her put down.
💔Piglet was the last of the quality of life assessments. Piglet is mostly blind in both eyes and is extremely reactive to any and all movement and especially dangerous to any touch. I have been able to safely treat her for basic care needs while she’s been here but each time it got more dangerous. She became more reactive and more dangerous for even the most basic of care. The way the vet put it brought me to my knees in sobs. Basic care became torture to her. That in her mind, she was being forced to live in a state of fear and panic and all she knew was that she needed to “protect” herself even more each time. I knew then that the kindest and most gut wrenching thing was to put her down as well.
I’ve spent hours every day since sobbing. I hate days like those. It makes me think I’m not strong enough to handle being a rescue. Like I’ve failed Ivy and Piglet in some way. But then again, I know in my heart that failing them would have been adopting them out and having the risk of them ending up in the slaughter pipeline. Which would have been a second time for Ivy. Or knowing their behavior but allowing them to go to an adopter or trainer and risk someone else getting severely injured.
Behavioral euthanasia is chosen when an animal’s behavior poses a severe safety risk to themselves or to the people caring for them, or when it reflects a profound level of mental suffering that cannot be relieved.
I will always advocate for behavioral euthanasia when it is truly the very last resort for an animal. I may make that decision with tears streaming down my face and my heart breaking so deeply I can barely breathe. But I will still make it.
Because sometimes love isn’t measured by how long we keep them with us. Sometimes love means having the courage to end a life filled with fear, panic, or suffering when there is no path to peace. They deserve compassion, dignity, and freedom from a mind that has become their prison, even when giving them that freedom is the hardest thing we will ever do.
My heart will break every single time, but I will never mistake my grief for a reason to prolong theirs.
