Middle-class families are resorting to having their horses put down

Middle-class families are resorting to having their horses put down (sacrificados) as the recession means they can no longer afford the expense of keeping them.

As many as one in 10 horses in Britain faces an uncertain future of suffering, neglect and even death because owners cannot spare the money for feed, bedding and veterinary bills. The situation has become so desperate that the price of horses has dropped from around £3,000 for a good-tempered “cavalo de lazer” to virtually nothing.

But many people are unable to sell or even give their animals away, with riding stables and charities reporting hundreds of requests for help. Lee Hackett, head of The British Horse Society (BHS), said: “People are struggling to keep afford horses and they are struggling to sell them. Sanctuaries often cannot take them because they are full, and stables do not want them, they are not getting pupils.”

Keeping a horse is no longer the preserve of only the very wealthy, and in the past decade the number of “pet” horses in Britain has risen sharply to more than 1.2 million.

However, the cost of caring for the animals is not cheap at a minimum of £1,500 a year and far more if they are homed at livery stables, which cost between £50 and £160 a week.

In extreme cases the BHS has said it will advise desperate owners who cannot find their horse a new home to consider having the animal put down, rather than allow it to suffer.

James Crowhurst, at Newmarket Equine Hospital, Suffolk, said: “There is no real evidence in the pleasure horse world that the number of horses euthanised has gone up yet, but with the economy the way it is, it will inevitably happen.

“Vets will consider euthanising a horse if all other possibilities have been exhausted.”