(no subject)

[desh]

Barbaro was euthanized.

And, look, you can be sad about this if you want. But all I'm saying is this:

The AP obituary of Barbaro, as reported by cnn.com: 1778 words.

cnn.com's obituary of Rosa Parks: 970 words.

It's sad. But he was just a racehorse.

Comments

[desh]

I guess from that perspective, then, the one positive thing that came out of all of this is public education. Now people (me, for example) who tend to be in the animal-rights camp but are generally uneducated on the subject of horses know that it's not cruel to put down a horse for "just" a broken leg; that it really is a big deal that takes months to get past if it's even survivable at all.

[trelana]

It's interesting to see how many people still make comments like, "A broken leg? Well, we'll just take you out back and shoot you" as if a broken leg was some trivial thing. In a human? It's not a fun time, but barring something extraordinary happening (like a femur break with displacement that severs the femoral artery) it's not life-threatening.

With horses, it's really the complete opposite. People don't seem to stop and think about it -- these are 1,000+ pound animals, supported by four hooves the size of lunch plates, with legs only a few inches in circumference. There's effectively no musculature in the legs below the gaskin, which makes breaks particularly dangerous. The presence of muscle mass means the presence of a significant, usually redundant source of blood flow. There are no such redundancies in a horse's leg -- everything below the forearm or gaskin is just bone, blood vessel, and sinewy tissue/cartiledge/tendon/etc.

Racehorses are particularly prone to fatal breaks because of the speed at which these breaks occur. You're infinitely more likely to have massive, uncorrectable damage when the entire weight of the horse is being supported by one leg at a time while moving over 30 mph. These aren't horses that take a bad step out in pasture, then immediately hobble around three-legged -- it's effectively impossible for a horse to immediately cease use of an injured leg at those speeds -- they'd usually flip end over end if they try, especially with foreleg injuries. Go For Wand in the '90 Distaff and Pine Island in the '06 Distaff come immediately to mind.

There are a few types of fracture that, even sustained at racing speeds, result in a salvageable horse. Condylar fractures, slab fractures of various sorts, and sesamoid fractures are the most common of survivable fractures. Even with a very simple fracture that's pinned in place by a single screw with a cast over the leg, you still run the (fairly high) risk of the horse foundering, which happened to Barbaro in July. The hooves of a horse are not designed to sustain the majority of the weight of their fore or hind end (depending on the location of the injured leg). Constant weight bearing on a single leg like that can lead to the swelling of the lining of the hoof, in between the outer wall and inner bits. It's incredibly painful -- just think of dropping 100lb or somesuch on your foot, while you're wearing tight, form-fitting shoes that you can't remove and won't let your foot swell naturally. It's also incredibly destructive to the integrity of the hoof as a whole -- that lining tries to swell, is compressed, blood vessels flowing into it get cut off, and it dies, resulting in the loss of the hoof itself (80% of it, in Barbaro's case).

It's a fatal sort of chain reaction that's almost impossible to circumvent once it starts. Once Barbaro founded in his near hind hoof, he'd have had to bear more weight on both of his forehooves to try to alleviate the pain in both his rear legs. This sets up the risk laminitis in one or both of the forehooves as well. Simple founder in one hoof or a 'simple' (e.g. sesamoid or condylar) fracture is often the end of the horse because of that domino effect, and most horses don't tolerate being in a sling, immobilised, or confined in general very well at all -- they're herd animals with a strong flight instinct. Over stressing them can lead to other potential fatal problems like severe colic, intestinal torsion, etc.

If anything, not only is it not cruel to put down a horse for a broken leg, in many cases, it's cruel -not- to do so. While I'm absolutely not in the animal rights camp, I'm a very, very big proponent of animal welfare. As humans responsible for the care and custody of any animals in our posession, it's up to us to ensure they don't suffer needlessly. I wish I could say that I believe that happened in the case of Barbaro, but hopefully what he endured did help educate the general public a bit.