Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Horses (Equus caballus) were domesticated around 6000 years ago, before that, wild horses were used as food resource for humans. Today, the horse is a popular companion animal used in many different training- and competition disciplines and a major leisure interest for many people. Horse owners have a duty to ensure that the horse is not exposed to unnecessary pain or suffering, such as severe and non-treatable disease or injury. If they are, this could lead to a decision of euthanasia. Sweden has a strong tradition and legislation on animal welfare and euthanasia can be seen as part of this. Injuries, age, accidents and various medical conditions are common reasons for the horse to be euthanised. In this study, telephone interviews were conducted with professional drivers from Svensk Lantbrukstjänst AB, a company that works with euthanasia of horses and other livestock. Telephone interviews were also conducted with selected organisations within the horse industry, that in various ways come in contact with owners in need of putting their horse down. The purpose of this study was to answer questions regarding how and why horses are euthanised in Sweden and to map the knowledge from the perspective of animal welfare as well as describing the horse owners´ perspective. Selected questions were asked to the respondents, who replied based on their own experiences and expertise within their field. This study highlights that the most common methods of euthanising horses are with a penetrating captive bolt device with subsequent bleeding or by medical injection. Besides the drivers, veterinarians and some farriers also perform euthanasia and it is important that the horse is handled calmly to minimise the risk of accidents during the procedure. To the horse owners, it can be a heavy and difficult decision to be made when it comes to putting a horse down, something all respondents in the study agreed on. As previous studies have not included professional drivers who work with euthanising horses, further studies may be needed. This should be done in order to maintain good animal welfare and ensure compliance with the legislation when it comes to horse euthanasia, as the professional´s knowledge and competence play an important role from an animal welfare legislation point of view, as well as of the horse owners.