Why is euthanasia allowed for horses?

Question

Why did they just kill that horse at the Kentucky Derby? WTF?

How is that allowed for any animal?

Answer 1

To keep her alive would of been tantamount to torturing her and the end result would've been the same.  Horses cannot survive an injury like she had.  Sad fact of life, but they actually showed her mercy and compassion in doing what they did when they did it...to pull her off the track before putting her down would of caused her extreme pain and distress.

Real life doesn't always play out as nicely as a Walt Disney movie.

Answer 2

when a horse has a major break on any of their legs it is almost impossible for it to be fixed. everything the horse would have to go through would be extremely painful and VERY expensive.

if a person breaks a leg, they cant walk on it so they are given wheelchairs or crutches and they have to get alot of rest and it will only take a month or so. you cant very well put a horse on crutches and say "now dont walk on that for 6 weeks". it takes horses longer to heal a break and there isnt a way to teach a horse to walk around on 3 legs until the broken one is healed. it just cant be done.

it is a very sad thing when a horse has to be put down, but sometimes there just isnt anything else that can be done to help them:(

Answer 3

It is tremendously hard to fix a horse's legs.  A person can lie down to recover from an injury, but a horse cannot because they weigh too much.  lying down for too long will cut off their blood supply and stop their organs from functioning properly.  For a horse to stand up with 2 broken legs would be very painful.  Especially since they were the 2 front legs... horses put 70% of their weight on their front legs.  If they had tried to fix Eight Belles' 2 front legs, she would have stood with too much weight on her back legs and she would have ended up developing laminitis in both of those legs, just like Barbaro did.  If they didn't euthanize her immediately, they would have been drawing out her pain for longer than necessary.  They euthanized her for the same reason that you might euthanize your dog if it has a serious illness or injury... we put down my beagle who had kidney failure because there was no chance that he could have recovered... should we have let him suffer a few extra days to let him die himself?

Answer 4

Well, the answer is that horse racing is  a cruel, barbaric, inhumane sport.  Yes it is true it is very difficult to keep horses alive after breaking their legs.  However, one of the answers stating that "keeping the horse alive is tantamount to torture" overlooks the fact the the industry itself is nothing but horse torture.  Most horses bread for racing are slaughtered or trained to death.  The publicity of this tragedy will hopefully reignite the debate regarding this and other cruel sports involving animals, such as racing, rodeo, and bull fighting.  Hopefully, these cruel "sports" will be illegal one day, like dog fighting.

Answer 5

ya look this question up but eight belles was euthanized because she broke both her ankles and was in a huge amount of pain and the doctors determined this injury could not be fixed so the only reasonable option was what they did.. u can't fix large animals, or any animals in general, as easily as u can with people