Hezza and the strange tale of his mother’s strangled Alsatian
AS an MP, Michael Heseltine seldom shied away from a tussle with the big beasts of the Commons.
Yesterday, however, it was the question of what happened when he disciplined his mother’s dog that was under the spotlight.
Lord Heseltine, 83, was quoted in Tatler telling how he was forced to chastise the Alsatian, named Kim, by pulling its choke chain so tight that the pet went limp.
Describing the 1964 incident, Lord Heseltine told the magazine how the dog had suddenly started biting him after he went to affectionately pet it.
The Tory grandee, who was nicknamed Tarzan after he famously swung the mace in the Commons, then added: ‘If you have a dog that turns, you just cannot risk it.
‘So I took Kim’s collar – a sort of choke chain – and pulled it tight. Suddenly he went limp. I was devoted to Kim, but he’d obviously had some sort of mental breakdown. There was no choice.’
Journalist Charlotte Edwardes, who carried out the Tatler interview, posted a link to the article on Twitter with a message saying: ‘Heseltine tells me about having to strangle [a] dog to death.’
Criticism from the RSPCA of the apparent dog killing swiftly followed, with the charity saying it could ‘never condone’ such a course of action. But it insisted it could not investigate the incident because it was more than three years ago and therefore classed as an historical matter.
As the backlash against him mounted, Lord Heseltine then spoke out to stress that Kim had not died as a result of him pulling the collar – and told how he had faced a ‘terrible dilemma’ the next day before deciding to have the dog put down after a vet advised it was the safest option. He told the Mail it was ‘nonsense’ and a ‘terrible misrepresentation’ to suggest that he strangled the dog, adding it was ‘perfectly all right’ after the incident, which happened while he was minding it for his mother and the animal turned on him as he tried to inspect one of its paws which appeared to be sore.
His wife Anne was heavily pregnant with their first daughter Annabel at the time and his mother Eileen was away on a six week cruise in South Africa leaving Kim with him in his two-bedroom Kensington flat.
‘The dog flew up on his hind legs and was biting my wrists,’ he recalled. I shouted at my wife to get out of the room because she was heavily pregnant and it was pretty frightening.’ Lord Heseltine, who was deputy prime minister from 1995 to 1997, said the Alsatian had ‘gone berserk’ and there was ‘a lot of blood’ so he had ‘no choice’ but to grab him by his chain.
‘I managed to get hold of the choke chain and twisted it. And after probably not more than a few seconds – it seemed longer at the time – he went quite limp,’ he said.
‘He then reverted back to his ordinary self. He was calm, licking, being friendly and back to normal.’
Of the decision to have the dog put down the next day, he said: ‘Once you have an Alsatian turn like that you have no choice but to have the dog put down.
‘It was quite traumatic for everyone, my mother had him since he was a puppy. We loved him.’
Tatler’s version of the story was later updated on its online edition to state: ‘Lord Heseltine has subsequently explained that after going limp Kim regained consciousness. After much consideration Lord Heseltine and his wife decided to take Kim to the vet the following day to be put down.’
Elsewhere in the Tatler feature, the writer described the peer being given a ‘ticking off’ by his wife over treatment of one of their three current dogs.
The article stated: ‘She sometimes gives her husband a tickingoff – especially when he tries to drag their wheezing 11-year-old black Lab, Alfie, by the scruff to have his picture taken. “Michael!” she shrieks. “He doesn’t like it”.’
Lord Heseltine told the Mail he had never taken the same action as that which he was forced to take against Kim with any other dogs, including his three current pets.
There have been rumours about Lord Heseltine allegedly strangling a dog at a party in 1990, when he was running to be leader of the Conservative Party, but this was dismissed as ‘journalist exaggeration’ at the time.
An RSPCA spokesman said: ‘The RSPCA can only investigate and prosecute summary-only offences within three years of that alleged offence being committed.
‘If a dog needs to be put to sleep then a qualified vet is the right person to euthanise an animal humanely and painlessly, not the dog’s owner.’
‘There is no rule that says a dog should automatically be put to sleep if it bites someone.’
‘It was traumatic for everyone’