Town Divided After Owner Wants Beloved Horse Put Down After Her Passing
A Cape Cod town is at odds over the final wishes one of their citizens made for her pet horse. Barbara Collins asked that she be buried with her horse after losing her battle to stomach cancer. But many people in her town of Sandwich, Massachusetts are up in arms about the call, and now one woman is scrambling to see if someone will come to the horse's rescue.
Collins has since passed, but the decision of what to do with her surviving horse Brady has caused a huge controversy.
While he has outlived his owner, Brady is not without his own health difficulties. As a video from NBC 10 Boston shows, the 20-year-old horse has a stifle injury and hasn't been ridden in years. His new caretaker, Kathy Booth-Frasier, at Crescent Moon Farm in Sandwich told the news outlet that Collins didn't want her senior horse passed from owner to owner, who might tire of caring for him.
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"A horse isn't a dog. They're more money. They're 700 lbs. animals. They can hurt you," the woman said. "You gotta do right by the horse — sometimes you gotta leave your heart by the door."
But not everyone agrees with her assessment. Allie Hammond of Rhode Island is the owner of Brady's sister. She says she's hoping she can save the horse's life so he can spend the rest of his days in peace.
"I don't want to see him lose his life and I don't think Barbara would either," she told the news outlet.
Hammond rescued both horses when they were yearlings — so it's now impossible for her to imagine his life would come to an end because of his last owner.
"He is such an amazing horse and giving him up was really hard for me," she recalled. Hammond was so distraught over the news that Brady was going to be euthanized that she reached out to a state representative. He is working with Hammond to see if they can save Brady, but time is running out.
Brady's lodging and care has been paid for up until May 1, then his fate may be unclear. His current caretaker said they don't have the funds to keep taking care of the horse forever, so unless they have a donor or he is adopted by a new owner the worst may happen.
"It's gonna be a commitment," the woman warned. "It's gonna be a written, legal, binding, commitment."
Online people had some strong feelings about the story. "New fear unlocked. People not respecting my wishes for my animals if something happened to me," wrote one person. "There’s worse things than death. An elderly, lame horse isn’t guaranteed safety and comfort in his old age. Euthanasia is valid," someone else agreed.
And a third commenter made a very good point: "QUALITY OVER QUANTITY," they wrote. "Long lives aren't always good lives!"
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