Why kill Eight Belles????

Question

Why did they have to euthanize Eight Belles ??? I know her front legs were broke...I understand that she would never race again but couldn't they have healed so that she could walk and then retired to a farm or even used to breed or anything like that? In fact if her legs couldn't heal it would have been the first time that I see someone come up with an innovative way for a cripple animal to "walk" in someway...like the dog that didn't have back legs so someone made a little cart with wheels that was attached to it's back end and she raced around with. Why simply say that Eight belles isn't worth anything because she'll never race again and euthanize her????

Answer 1

Did you learn nothing from the Ruffian and Barbaro incidents.  Racehorses are not content one one leg often and won't allow it to heal.  But in her case, two broken legs, what do you expect her to stand on while they heal?  Some racehorses can heal from a broken leg, but the better the athlete, the less likely, she's not content being still.  And no one can make a horse understand that they need to stay still and lying down to heal their leg.  (plus horses are not built to lay down for long, and staying down for 6 weeks for bones to heal would kill her anyway).  In addition, the breaks were so compounded, it's not just fixing one break, it's fixing shattered bone, which would be crazy hard even on a human.  It's not that she wasn't worth anything, it's that she would have gone through hours of suffering before coming to the same end.  You can't attach a racehorse to that kindof cart, they have to much drive to win and would end up hurting herself worse.

Answer 2

She had both front ankles broke, there is no way she would have been able to walk again. If it had been one then yes there would have been a good chance they could have saved her. With 2 broke she didn't even have 3 good legs to balance her body weight out on. The only thing to do was put her down. If they could have saved her they would have. If one wants to look at it from a money standpoint, she would have brought a whole lot of money a whole lot hundreds of thousands just for breeding. Yet she could not be saved, she was in pain and would never walk again, and always be in sever pain. So they had to put her down. It is so sad, but that was the only option they had that was in her best interest.

Answer 3

Leg injuries aren't a very simple situation - especially on race horses. Eight Belles situation was even more complex because she not only broke bones in both front legs but because they were compound fractures (through the skin). To splint a horse and get it to an operating table they need some assistance from the horse (ie: walking) and with two injured front legs she could not do that. IF they would have sedated her, picked her up and carried her into the ambulance - IF she would have woke up she probably would have done more damage to herself and whomever was riding in the ambulance with her. When Barbaro was injured his injury was healed because of surgery but he developed severe laminitis from the injury. It didn't matter that he couldn't race - his owners wanted him alive.

But there's a difference between what we want and what is right for the animal. Even if they could have saved Eight Belles she, like Barbaro, would have had to have been so doped up on medication to be able to withstand the pain. When a horse is on large amounts of pain killers, especially bute, they can have intestinal problems; she would have faced a lot of problems and an unideal life.

The decision that the owners had to make was a hard one and I commend them for making the decision for her and not for themselves. It's a hard decision when one has to face losing an animal; my horses are my best friends and I would be mortified to be faced with that dilemma; nevermind the decision to follow.

Think about it: if you were a barrel racer or football player (or whatever sport you're into) and it was your life (you trained in the morning and practiced in the afternoon; your life revolved around your sport) and you were injured and unable to play *ever* - how would you feel about that? Would you accept that news easily? You would probably get depressed - the same thing can happen to animals.

There's more to life than just being able to breathe and live - there's the ability to live that life to the fullest. There are few race horses out there that can be forced into retirement just as their career begins and be happy with that life. Race horses do not retire easily; racing is what they live for - they were born to run and every beat of their heart fuels that need to run.