Attitudes of the Equestrian Public towards Equine End-of-Life Decisions.
Authors: Bell Catherine, Rogers Suzanne
Journal: Animals : an open access journal from MDPI
Summary
Bell and Rogers (2021) investigated why some UK horse owners delay euthanasia decisions despite their animals experiencing prolonged suffering, using a Likert-scale survey underpinned by the Five Freedoms framework to explore attitudes towards end-of-life welfare. Through 160 responses gathered primarily via equestrian Facebook groups, Principal Component Analysis identified seven factors underlying decision-making, with participants demonstrating significantly greater willingness to consider euthanasia for physical conditions compared with behavioural or affective issues. Importantly, the study revealed a marked asymmetry in welfare consideration: whilst owners readily cited physical reasons (lameness, injury, systemic disease) when reflecting on horses they had euthanised, very few incorporated behavioural or mental health indicators into their decision-making frameworks, suggesting either genuine failure to recognise these as legitimate welfare concerns or reluctance to act upon them. The authors note that substantial participant responses stated hypothetical scenarios "had no bearing" on euthanasia decisions—a concerning finding that points to inadequate recognition of how pain, stress and psychological distress influence welfare status. For equine professionals, these results underline the critical need to improve owner education around pain and stress indicators beyond obvious lameness, particularly given the widespread undervaluing of affective and behavioural welfare factors in actual end-of-life decisions.
Read the full abstract on PubMed
Practical Takeaways
- •Educate horse owners on recognizing behavioral and affective indicators of poor welfare, not just physical lameness, to inform more timely end-of-life decisions
- •Address emotional and financial barriers that delay euthanasia by providing compassionate counseling and discussing payment options with clients facing this decision
- •Frame end-of-life decisions within the Five Freedoms framework to help owners understand that freedom from fear, distress, and inability to express normal behaviors are valid welfare considerations
Key Findings
- •Horse owners were significantly more likely to consider euthanasia for physical issues compared to affective state or behavioral issues (62.2% of variance explained across seven factors)
- •Only a small proportion of participants cited affective and/or ethological factors when recalling reasons for euthanizing their own horses, suggesting these welfare concerns are frequently omitted from end-of-life decisions
- •Barriers to timely euthanasia include financial cost, emotional attachment, peer pressure, negative attitudes towards killing, and poor recognition of behavioral pain indicators
- •A large number of responses indicated that hypothetical welfare scenarios had no bearing on euthanasia decisions, suggesting lack of recognition of welfare issues and their implications