Cross Breeds

Why euthanise fallen race horses?

Why are race horses with broken legs routinely shot? Could they not be sedated, treated and then given to a home for retired race horses to recover? It all seems a bit .... wasteful.

Public Comments

1. Well Horses need to stand or it cut's off their blood circulation. Breaking a leg means they can't stand. So it boils down to a slow painful death by blood curculation problems or a quicker death. I would think there may someday be a better way to incapacitate the leg so they could recover but not yet.
2. It is sad but unfortunately it ultimately comes down to $$$. Not that the owner of the horse doesn't care for it. Firstly you've have to move the horse. It will be in (potentially) agony with a break. It can't walk. You would then have to get it offf the track and to stables. A vet would have to come out and x-ray and potentially operate on it. You then have to (worst scenario) have the horse in a sling to keep pressure and weight off the leg. It's hugely stressful for the horse, who is used to moving about and for ciculatory reasons has to move anyway. The time, and cost to rehabilitate a horse who will likely never ever return to a racetrack outweighs the supposed benefits of keeping the horse alive. Most owners will have insurance that will reimburse them the loss of the horse, but won't cover this sort of rehab. The exception to this might possibly be a mare with excellent bloodlines who, if it was a minor fracture that prevented racing, would still have a very successful life as broodmare.
3. because for a horse, a broken leg is a very big deal and it's not worth it to keep them alive. i've only ever known one horse to recover from a broken leg, he had it in a cast which kept it completely straight and immobilised for months and it wouldn't be fair on the horse to do this for a serious fracture which may never get better.
4. As Dino's Mum says, it is a question of £ money and in the fact that a horse is no good for racing after breaking a leg. To get a horse well enough to be of any use would cost way to much so it is easier to use the needle or gun.One date they may ban over the jump racing, they are cruel horses run and jump for pleasure over the jump races of any kind are not to please the horse just the bookies and gamblers.
5. it is stupid. It depends on what part of the leg they break. if its the fetlock they are usually put down. but if like yesterday one horse broke its neck and another his neck, they they'd die instatnly or put down because of pain. But its pathetic when they injure the legs and the owners want them put down becasue they cant race.. doesnt mean they can be sold to a loving retirment home... i think the grand national is 100% cruel and should be banned..
6. Because once a horse has broken a leg, or similar, it's virtually impossible to keep them quiet and off their leg for long enough for it to heal, because of how they are, and their weight. It has been done, but normally it's felt kinder to put them out of their pain, there and then. It's far from the same as when an animal like a dog breaks a leg, where the leg can be put in a cast and the dog kept crate-rested etc. Add Dino's Mum has said it far better than I have here!!
7. Number one, they are not "shot". Horses who suffer catastrophic breakdowns and severe fractures are humanely euthanized on-track (the same way a dog is at the vet's office) if necessary. The problem with treating breaks on horses is their physiology. Horses weigh 1,200 pounds many times, and that weight is disbursed 60-40% front to back legs, and between that, is disbursed between all four legs. Horses feet most times cannot take the additional pressure of being 3-legged during recovery without severe damage to the remaining sound legs, nor are they capable of lying down for the entirety of their recovery without severe implications to their other systems. With a severe fracture of the front leg, it is much more humane to euthanize the animal immediately while they are still in shock and adrenaline-mode, and likely not feeling much pain, than to push them through the horror of foundering on the still-sound leg(s) after a surgery. That said, many, many horses who break-down on track sustain fractures or soft tissue injuries that CAN bear some weight, and that DO allow for a good prognosis in recovery. There are quite literally hundreds (if not thousands) of rehabilitation and re-homing programs for these horses, and many owners will go through the treatment/recovery process with their own horses.
8. They aren't always. It depends on the location and severity of the break. If the break is very simple, with no skin breakage and no displacement, it can be treated with stall rest. Unfortunately, with race horses, breaks are usually not simple. Often the horse tries to run on the broken leg, causing more breaks, displacing the fragments, and breaking the skin. If the broken bone has not penetrated the skin and the break is on the lower leg, it may be treated surgically with success, albeit at significant expense. This assumes that there is a good equine hospital nearby. The bone must be repaired such that the horse can put some weight on it fairly soon after treatment. If the skin is broken, euthanasia is generally recommended, as these wounds are very difficult to clean and usually become infected. Even when the bone has been repaired successfully, the horse is not out of the woods. Horses need to be able to distribute their weight evenly. If they can't, laminitis often results. This is a painful and debilitating condition in and of itself; plus, it can lead to colic. Laminitis led to the U.S. Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro being euthanized. Nevertheless, some owners do treat their horses. It can be a very expensive proposition, though. Horses at the track aren't shot BTW, at least not in the U.S where I am. They're given an overdose of barbituate. Also, horses don't only break legs at the track. Paddock accidents happen, too.
9. Paul, get out of your fantasy world and come down to Earth. Horses get euthanized after accidents at the track because in many cases there is no possible way to save them. An example from here in the States would be the filly Eight Belles, who broke both front legs at the ankle while galloping out following the 2008 Kentucky Derby. That filly was destroyed where she fell ( which was on the near turn of the main track) because saving her would have been impossible. Horses aren't like people, Paul. You can't tell a horse to stay in bed or to use crutches for eight or ten weeks while a fracture heals. Horses need to be able to move around, to graze, and to lead their lives. In the wild, a broken leg is a DEATH sentence for any horse that suffers it. There are occasional exceptions to this rule, but they are rare. In 2006, another famous American racehorse, Barbaro, broke down at the start of the Preakness. Because so many people ( including his owners) loved him, a tremendous effort was made to try to save his life. He underwent numerous surgeries on his broken right hind leg, and actually lived long enough for the original fractures to heal. But in the end, he died from laminitis, a disease caused by a combination of the long confinement ( he was at the hospital for 8 months) and the unnatural pressures which were put on his 3 uninjured legs. When he was finally put down in January of 2007, it was clear to everyone that he was in agony and would never again be free from pain.Tragically, that is the fate of most horses which suffer catastrophic accidents. It doesn't matter whether you are talking about racing or other equestrian sports. There are plenty of horses in sports like eventing and show jumping which have lost their lives after breaking a leg or suffering other injuries. Royal Kaliber was one of these horses. He was a show jumper who led the US team to a gold medal in 2004 at the Athens games. Unfortunately, however, he bowed a tendon during the final round of competition. Bowed tendons aren't usually fatal, but they require as much as a year of recovery time during which the horse must be confined. "Royal" ( as his owners and rider affectionately called him) was unable to tolerate confinement. Within a month of the time he was put on stall rest, he colicked- severely so. He was operated on, and for a short while it appeared he would recover from the surgery. But within a week after that, he colicked again, and when the surgeons went back in, they discovered that a huge piece of his colon had become necrotic (meaning that it died) in the interim. There was no way he could ever recover or live any kind of normal life. The horse was destroyed on the operating table. So you see, Paul, saving a horse after an accident is far from a simple endeavour.