Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I too have felt this dismay many times seeing certain horses
that you knew were suffering beyond belief. In some cases, the owners
knew their horses well enough to know that they needed to stick around,
other times, I"ve been amazed at the stupidity of that horse
owner.   Speaking of the bullet in the brain option. I used to
care for some race horses in KY and my husband went to feed for me one
night to find that a promising filly was hobbling around on 3 legs, one
irrevocably shattered. We couldn't put a bullet in her brain b/c of
insurance and that poor little filly was made to be in pain that much
longer while the vet was cold and final drugs administered.  She'd
probably been hurt since just after I'd fed that am b/c her mother's bag
was totally swollen where the mother wouldn't let her near after whatever
happened had occurred. We never did figure out how she'd been
hurt.

At 12:39 PM 2/27/03 -0800, you wrote:
> I am often dismayed by
> people who spend literally thousands of dollars on a dying animal
> (horse,
> dog, cat, etc.), trying to prolong the animal's suffering for their
> own
> gratification and inability to let go and say good-bye.  I have
> personally
> "put a bullet into the brain" of a suffering horse.  This
> mare, who was in
> excruciating pain, dropped like a rock and never felt a thing.  Her
> owner
> and I cried like babies over her body, but she was no longer in
> agony.  My
> husband "put a bullet into the brain" of my favorite endurance
> horse when
> he finally fell down and could no longer get up.