They Shoot Horses Don't They

[dosxuk]

To put this into perspective, having worked for Channel 4 Racing probably about 50 times, I am yet to see a horse shot. I have seen lots of fallers and slight injuries, but not one of those has resulted in a shot horse.

[Dark Moomin]

I think the problem is the young horses which never make the grade, rather than injured horses

[Tashanta26]

there is lots of things a race horse that does not make the grade can do, just because they have not been good enough to race does not mean they cannot excell in another horsey sphere, at the end of the day they are young and can be re trained

[Dark Moomin]

Thats my point.

 

But doing that costs money, and the owners get more and more quickly by selling them to abbatoirs rather than paying retraining, or whatever.

 

And this is what needs to change, along with the mass production (almost) of foals for racing, when so few actually make the grade.

[taxman]

Thread updated to include the latest report that many more thoroughbreds are being sent to the abattoir as the recesion bites.

[HeadingNorth]

When they hurt their legs at a race then they always seem to shoot them and everyone says "you have to shoot them if they break a leg". Why is it that nobody ever questions this? Do they really mean that the horse will die in agony unless it is shot or that it won't make any more money for them, or is it something in between?

 

A thoroughbred racehorse cannot stand on three legs. They will not support its weight.

 

It can survive, if it is put in a full-body sling, but its muscles will atrophy and it will be completely useless as a functioning racehorse from then on. Sometimes, if a horse is worth a lot of money at stud, they'll do this anyway, since it can still function as a stallion. Some owners will stand the cost of keeping an immobile horse and then retire it to pasture - JP MacManus, one of the richest owners in steeplechasing, never puts down any of his horses unless they're genuinely ill, all of his ex-racers plod around on his farmland for years in happy retirement.

 

Some owners cannot, or will not, stand the cost of keeping a racehorse fed and stabled when it's no longer any use to man or beast. As with a pet dog which has contracted an illness you can't afford to have treated, the only viable alternative is to have it put down.

 

 

 

And all of the above doesn't always apply to broken legs anyway. If a horse shatters its hock bone (which I've been unfortunate enough to see happen), there is no hope of recovery and the quickest way to put the horse out of its misery is to shoot it then and there.

[metalman]

I don't know why the Observer article is written as though something illegal is going on, because presumably it isn't.

[epiphany]

What did everybody expect would happen to them? This is what I assumed happened and the real surprise to me is that anyone is surprised.

 

I'm surprised that you're surprised at their surprise. People are often surprised by things they really should expect.

[WeX]

As a follow up to the story about Greyhounds being shot through the head and buried in fields here is another fun story about what happens to horses who fail to make the grade, or are too old for the Sport of Kings

 

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1884945,00.html

 

Not in all cases or even the majority. Most are sold off to horsey types and kept as pets.

[Guest]

Just shows that many members of the human race are the lowest form of life on this planet and those who easily accept this are very little better.