Lacking a vet, Quebec family shoots dying horse in 'terrible beautiful act of last love'
CBC
WARNING: This story contains distressing details
The sky was blue, the swallows were singing and the sandhill cranes chortled as Katharine Fletcher took her last walk with her horse of 19 years on her property in Quyon, Que., on April 25.
Just that morning, before 6 a.m., the owner of Spiritwood Farm in Western Quebec had found Crescent, one of their two horses, lying on her side unable to get up.
"We ran out," said Fletcher.
It looked like a gastrointestinal problem that was causing Crescent intense pain.
"I phoned two vets who have not met me yet. Both were lovely but couldn't come," said Fletcher.
With her 31-year-old American Saddlebred mare "writhing in agony," and no trailer to transport her off the property, Fletcher says she made one last desperate call to a veterinarian.
"He didn't know me at all. I just said my mare is 31," said Fletcher. "He said we're looking at euthanasia … And he said 'I would be able to come to put her down, to euthanize her, but only in the evening sometime.'"
Fletcher says she managed to get Crescent walking for 10 minutes across the property, and wondered how they would manage her pain for the next 12-plus hours until the veterinarian arrived.
"I was able to talk to her," said Fletcher, standing in what used to be Crescent's stall.
"I just thanked her for her grace and being part of my life. And she stopped, as she always did, she always nuzzled me. And she was just like the perfect horse for me."
Moments later, Crescent collapsed, and Fletcher says she and her husband, Eric, were faced with an impossible decision.
"We just realized that she needed to be put down and we couldn't watch her writhing and teeth clenched," said Fletcher, sobbing. "So Eric came with the gun … Eric shot Crescent."
Fletcher says it was unimaginable.
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