I think it’s nice Hunts will take horses and I’m interested to learn this is the norm in NZ.
I strongly agree with others who have said a bullet is a humane method of euthanasia. I’ve assisted on many pentobarbital euth’s and took the opportunity to read the euthanasia section in the medical text one of the vets I worked for carried in his truck. It was written neutrally, but still seemed to indicate that a gunshot (slightly above between the eyes) was the quickest and not painful. I asked the vet about it and he was just like,“Oh yea, absolutely.”
At the racetrack, guns were not allowed on-site anyway, and of course all “flesh” would be tainted as racehorses rarely get the “wait and see” prescription more common for pet horses kept at home. They will probably still have sedatives from the diagnostic imaging as well as NSAIDs in their systems. If it were my decision, I would rather see most of these horses stay on painkillers and get the injection, rather than get a long trailer ride and have to wait for days to be drug-free.
However:
Pentobarbital isn’t pretty. The required dose varies radically, which is the main reason there’s a risk of waking up. A young horse who is injured but not sick requires A LOT more, and the drug itself isn’t cheap. I’ve personally never seen a horse wake-up, but I’ve heard the stories. The vet I worked with at the track used high-doses and was crazy-careful to stay and observe the horse quite a while. This was usually done in a subtle way, where he would linger and chat with the owners until they did their final sigh and wandered off, then he would go to collect his kit, at which point he would do a final, brief exam to verify the horse’s passing.
Without sedation beforehand, you will almost certainly see the horse go buggy. Apparently, at that point the horse is already “gone” and this is just a physical reaction to the drug. It’s not understood to be an indication of fear or pain. But it is very unpleasant.
With sedation, supposedly you are just suppressing the convulsions, but the internal process is still the same (?) In addition to sedation, it’s my understanding that more pent. should also be used when you go this route (as the vast majority do).
For people who have a private place to bury their animals, I think following recommended treatments but ultimately choosing gunshot over injection is totally reasonable. I feel if you want your animal not to be wasted, that’s ideal, but I think you really have to take stock of your own situation. There may be circumstances where drug Tx’s can be ended (or not begun), but other times when pain still needs to be managed or putting off the euthanasia to wait for antibios, steroids, etc to metabolize out may be unkind.
Just an aside (and FYI) the animals sanctuaries I’ve been acquainted with have always had waiting lists.
Interesting topic!
