19 June 2000

Care homes urged to allow pets

Thousands of elderly people are condemned to needless anguish each year when they are forced to have their pets put down to be able to take a place in a care home, a charity says. Counsel and Care for the Elderly says heart-breaking decisions about an animal's life have to be made because too few nursing and residential homes are prepared to take pets. If owners cannot rehouse the pet with a friend, relative or animal sanctuary, they are forced to have their pet destroyed. And even if the pet is rehoused, regular visits will need to be arranged, the charity's chief executive Martin Green said. He continued: "They become a vital part of older people's lives and well-being. They are close companions and a means of overcoming isolation. "It is tragic that just as older people are at their most vulnerable, they are forced to take life or death decisions about an animal they love. "The real solution is for more homes to think seriously about the relationship between pets and the elderly people they take into care." Mr Green added that although there are few statistics available, the charity's advice line is swamped with calls from elderly people faced with the agonising dilemma of what to do with their old and trusted friends. Counsel and Care for the Elderly is calling for more care homes to take in pets at its AGM at the Natural History Museum in Kensington, west London, to be attended by the charity's patron, HRH The Duchess of Gloucester. Living proof that pets can help older people's health and well-being is being provided in the form of 88-year-old Rita High and her two Tibetan spaniels Rascal and Kahn. Mrs High regularly cheers up other elderly people by taking her dogs to visit them in care homes around where she lives in Acton, west London.