Calls for change after the wrong horse is put down
The horse’s owner is calling for change in protocol to prevent such situations
CALLS have been made for passport checks to be mandatory when horses are put to sleep after a mix-up meant the death of a healthy animal.
The owner of two horses kept with Louise Allan’s retired former racehorse Round The Bend (Mr B) had arranged for them both to be put down on 13 September.
But their owner’s mother was present at the yard, in Rutland, when the vet arrived, and she gave him the wrong horse by mistake; Round The Bend rather than one of her daughter’s pair.
Former point-to-point trainer Miss Allan told H&H the horse had belonged to her late father and that she had had him since he was six.
“To get that phone call was just appalling,” she said. “He was a very special horse; loved and healthy; there’s no way he should have been put down.
“The [owner’s mother] is saying she’s very sorry, but nothing can change things. It just shouldn’t have happened.”
PROTOCOL CHANGE
MISS ALLAN queried why there is currently no protocol for checking horses’ identification in these circumstances.
“If you can’t transport a horse,
or vet it, without a passport, why can’t it be law to have to have one when it’s put down?" she said.
“Something needs to be changed so this catastrophe can never happen again.”
Christina Arling, who had been looking after Mr B in his retirement, found out what had happened when she went to check him in the field and found one of the other livery’s horses.
“I’m pretty tough but I can’t begin to tell you how awful that felt,” she told H&H. “I went back to the yard in floods.
“It might sound dramatic but it’s like a member of the family has been murdered.
“And both horses were put down. Did B have to watch his field buddy go down? It’s a question I don’t want to ask because it would break my heart.”
Ms Arling agreed that protocols need to be put in place to prevent a similar incident.
“It’s all very well if you know the horses or it’s an emergency but if you don’t know them, and it’s not actually your client, I think you need to check,” she said.
“The yard owner has now said the owner has to be there in future, at least at first, so at least it won’t happen there again.”
Neither the other horses’ owner nor the vet concerned wished to comment.
THE VET’S VIEW
BUT British Equine Veterinary Association CEO David Mountford said: “This is a very sad incident and our thoughts go out to all concerned.
“While every effort is always made to avoid errors, in the real world mistakes can, and do, happen even in very carefully controlled environments, such as the recent mix-up between Mandarin Princess and her stablemate Millie’s Kiss at Yarmouth Racecourse.
“It is really important to recognise all the human factors involved when an incident like this occurs so the chances of it being repeated are reduced.
“BEVA’s congress in September included a session on how principles employed in flight safety and, more recently, human healthcare, can be formally applied to help us learn from mistakes; removal of blame allows objective analysis of incidents involving horses and this helps us identify flaws and implement changes that make incidents less probable.
“One action that would make identification errors less likely would be universal microchipping, something that BEVA has long been a proponent of.”
‘If you can’t transport a horse, or vet it, without a passport, why can’t it be law to have to have one when it’s put
down?’
LOUISE ALLAN