Henneth Annûn Story Archive

In one of my stories there will be a v. sad scene involving putting down a badly injured war horse. How would such a thing be done in a world without guns, presumably trying to spare the horse as much pain as possible? In this case there will be a very bad leg injury (a shattered bone), such that the horse will die a terrible death of infection and pain, so putting him down is the only choice.

Thanks ahead of time for any help.

Gandalfs apprentice

 

Hi GA,

I  don't suppose calling in the vet with the green dream is an option? Maybe Aragorn had a middle earth alternative? Sorry to be yucky but I think cutting its throat would be the humane thing to do.  While there may not be guns in middle earth I'm sure there is no shortage of daggers and swords. Which brings me to modern day - what do you do when you don't have a gun or a blade?  (or a vet)

 

Casso:

I've wondered since I first posted this question if firing an arrow into the brain wouldn't be the most humane thing. Slitting of throat is definitely not.

So far, googling has not brought me any answers.

G.A. 

 

I would drive a dagger through the horse's heart. I have seen that one in films.

~Vil

 

Wouldn't you have to know equine anatomy really well for that to be a sure thing? In films, of course, it would look a lot better as compared to more bloody alternatives. My husband suggested an axe blow to the brain (yuck!).

G.A. 

 

A stab straight down with a dagger, severing its spine? Cutting an artery and letting it bleed out (it would be very fast)? And a professional cavalryman would have good knowledge of basic equine anatomy, I should think. Perhaps a professional butcher would be able to help.

If you don't mind my mentioning it, arrows aren't properly "fired", by the way; that seems to be a Gunpowder Era usage. Arrows can be loosed, or shot.

 

I can't remember if anyone's mentioned this, but I suspect the most humane thing would be to cut the throat. Not deep enough that it couldn't breathe, just enough that it would bleed out. In humans there are loads of of blood vessels going to the brain so neck and head wounds bleed an awful lot. I imagine death would be fairly quick for the horse, if a bit hard to look at for the human.

Also, if the blade is very sharp and smooth the horse would feel almost nothing at all. This is the reason why kosher slaughtering techniques were supposed to be so humane (at least for the time). I know I've received cuts that I didn't feel or even notice until someone pointed them out to me. If the cutting material is smooth, it won't rip the skin, it will just slice through it and that doesn't hurt that much at all.

On the other hand a stab would be pretty painful (even if just for a short period of time), and very hard to do. Hard enough on humans who are standing erect, but think about the shape of a horse. And if you miss and hit another organ there's potentially a much slower death (or no death at all).

Marta

 

I've gotten two answers to my personal email from knowledgeable people about this, and I will ask their permission to post the entire messages. In a nutshell, one says that the most humane thing is to cut an artery, either the jugular or one in the rectum, so that the horse bleeds out; the other says it's to thrust a very sharp long knife or sword into the heart.

G.A. 

 

I actually have a an RL (and, would you believe it, recent) story that might illuminate the matter. You may or may not be aware that in 2001 hundreds of thousands of sheep and cows in mainland Britain were slaughtered and burned in an attempt to contain an outbreak of foot and mouth disease (and this was them 'containing' it!). Most of the animals, as you would expect, were shot, but apparantly at the height of the cull, at the blackspot region in Northumbria, there was so much to be done that it was sourced out to people who didn't have gun licences (as is quite comman knowlege, very few Britains do).

A friend of a friend at the time had one of these jobs, and he claimed that- can you believe this- the approved way to cull a cow when you couldn't fire a gun was to calmly walk up to it and briskly hammer a long iron tent peg into the poor creature's skull! As cows are usually, apparantly, very trusting and rather dim, if you did it properly (through the forehead) apparantly they never had time to work out what he was doing- didn't even cry out in pain. Plus, unlike firing a gun, there wasn't a load noise that would frighten the others, so the entire heard could be done one after another!

Obviously horses are rather more skittish (and brighter) than cows, but I seem to remember an attendant can do just about anything to a lot of horses if he's calm, authoritative and stays where the horse can see him...

Soubrettina

 

Madeleine has sent me some very helpful and well-informed answers to this sad subject. I've excerpted her comments below.

--Gandalfs apprentice

From Madeleine: 

 

• Forums Home
• 1 Month of Posts
• FAQs

Forum Conferences

• Challenges
• General
• Members
• Resources
• Stories

A conference is a collection of forums.

Intended for: General Audience

This forum is open to all HASA members. It is read-only for the general public.

Membership on HASA is free and it takes only a few minutes to join. If you would like to participate, please click here.

If you are already a member, please log in to participate.

« Back to Research Questions

• Calendars of Middle-earth
• Concerning Pipe-weed