There was an accident on the racecourse and a horse injured its front leg during the obstacle course. Unacceptably, the horse was subsequently euthanized.
It's just that the front leg is injured, and it is not terminally ill, why not treat it, but kill the horse?
The value of an ordinary horse is about 650,000 yuan, and the various expenses of raising horses in a year are as high as 100,000 yuan, and the injured horse is a worthless horse, so it will be euthanized, is this true?
Could it be that there are such cold unspoken rules behind the seemingly elegant horse racing industry?
Don't rush to conclusions, let's first look at the circumstances under which horses are euthanized.
In 2020, there was a British drama "All Creatures" that received 9.3 points on Douban, which is adapted from the book of the same name and is a work written by the author Jimmy Haley based on his personal experience as a veterinarian. The protagonist, Harry, euthanized a horse during a visit to a horse because it suffered from a twisted colon and could not live long, and out of kindness to the animal, Harry euthanized the horse despite his intolerable treatment, because the disease it suffered from could not be cured and would make it very painful.
The plot of this movie is more consistent with our understanding that if a horse is terminally ill, veterinarians and horse owners can euthanize them.
But the reason why the scene on the Tokyo Olympics was not accepted was because most people would think that "the horse was only slightly injured."
The protagonist of this incident is called "Jes Set" (Jet), which is 14 years old and belongs to the "year of the fight" of horse racing. After X-ray irradiation, the veterinarian found that the injury was in the right lower limb, and finally diagnosed that the ligament above the horse's hoof was torn, could not be repaired, and there was no medical means to help it recover.
If it is a person, the ligament tear can be treated by local heat compresses or surgery, but once the horse's ligament is torn, it is impossible to tie them to a cast to fix it, because for the horse, they cannot stop running, and it is worse for them to walk than to die.
This is related to the body structure and habits of horses. Horses, like elephants, giraffes, donkeys and other animals, sleep standing up so that they can escape quickly when they encounter danger. This is a survival instinct of animals, even in extremely safe places, horses rarely lie down to rest, even if they lie down for only a few minutes, so the average person rarely sees the horse lying down.
What if we tied a ligament strained horse to a cast and forced it to lie down?
Horses weigh about 500 kg, and if they lie down for a long time, they will cause a lot of pressure on the internal organs, resulting in problems such as poor breathing, and it will feel very uncomfortable for the horse, and will want to get up as soon as possible, so they will struggle desperately, in the process they are likely to hurt themselves, or cause the wound to worsen. So giving a plaster cast to a horse is not at all within the range of options.
In addition, if a prosthesis is installed on a horse, it can also put a burden on the horse, and there are few successful cases in horse racing.
Japan's "Sakura Star King" also suffered a torn left front hoof ligament, when its owner did not choose euthanasia, but wanted to try his best to save its life, invited the best veterinarian to perform amputation of the "Sakura Star King" and installed a prosthesis. However, in the end, in the process of treatment, due to the instability of the center of gravity caused by standing on three feet, it caused hoofitis, so it had to reduce the weight of the "Sakura Star King", which brought more pain to it. Four months later, the owner of the horse faced with an increasingly weak love horse and finally had to choose euthanasia.
In 2004, the British media reported the news of a successful prosthetic implant for a pony. The brown pony was named "Riley," and it was extremely lucky. According to veterinarians, horses are generally euthanized, but the owner of "Riley" is very eager to save his life, and "Reilly" personality also meets the preconditions for prosthetic surgery on horses: it can withstand sex!
Because the horse had to hang on the hoop for a while after amputation, and Riley did, it survived.
But for the horse racing, their temperament is more fierce and violent, completely unable to "calm down", and even more unable to accept themselves who cannot walk and run, which is the reason for euthanasia on the racecourse.
Gaudel, the owner of the horse, bids farewell to his beloved horse on social networking sites and says that it died because of his favorite thing to do (running and crossing obstacles). Finally, he said he would disappear from social networks for a while to remember Jet Set. It can also be seen that Gaudel is indeed very fond of "Jet Set", and thoroughbred horses like "Jet Set" are very precious, even if they are used for breeding after retirement, they can get high profits, but it is very painful for horses. Gaudel's willingness to give up profits may be his most benevolent expression of "Jet Set".
It is true that horses break legs or torn ligaments often occur on the racecourse, because the horses are purebreds, they run faster and lighter, but they also cause many diseases and accidents.
It is difficult to say whether horse racing is good or not, but as a sport, horse racing does have its cold side to horses, and overtraining and euthanasia have always been criticized problems.