Humane Dispatch (Horse)

Triggermortis

Well-Known Member
Hi guy's,
I got a call from a mate late last night to ask if i could turn out to dispatch a horse that had gone down,as he was unable to get hold of his regular vet, and the vet was due to come in today to do it anyway.
I asked him to try the vet one more time as i was unsure as to wheather or not i was legally covered to do it with either the .243 or my sec 1 with a brenneke slug (both on open ticket).
As it turned out he managed to contact the vet who then came out within the hour.
I have to say my first thoughts were that if a vet could not get out, i'd have gone and done it on humanitarian grounds and taken a chance with a clear conscience.
your thoughts please
PS
i will have a chat with my FEO to see what he says

Tikkat3
 
I think I would have thought twice as well, unless given Authority to do so as per your certificate on mine it allows me as part of the condition were it states for the Humane killing of animals, but not all F.C have this clause included
 
i have humane slaughter put on all my fire arms as i live in a rural community and used to do rta for the police and have been called out by farmers to dispatch injured or sick animals if the hunt cant get there straight away to do the job so if you ask there is no problem having it put on but if you live in the middle of London it might be different story
 
I have had a firearms licence for 30 plus years now last time I applied humane slaughter of animals was added unasked for but does keep you on right side of law
 
Cheers lads, that settles it for me,i'll get hold of the FEO, have a chat and get HD put on me ticket, its just nice to get confirmation when you are unsure, to be honest i was really concerned that the owner might innocently mention to the wrong person that they'd got someone to shoot the horse and that it may come back to bite on the arse as doing a favour for someone is apt to do ? sods law says it'd happen to me!

Tikkat3
 
A horse has a very small brain. The weapon of choice would be a shotgun at close range. Doesn't matter what cartridge. No issue with conditions on your FAC, no risk or ricochet etc etc. The energy transferred is so much higher. The aim point is higher on a horse than cattle so you need to compensate for that.
 
A very dangerous animal to shoot at close range and i know a gamekeeper who is on the list to call out for HD and he won't shoot anything bigger than a deer. We had a cow on the M9 a month ago and he shot it but at a distance.
 
No experience myself, but from a legal perspective, just use a shotgun.
You don't have any conditions to adhere to.
 
Captive bolt is ideal but I would be more worried about what he would do with the carcass! You can't bury it.
 
Captive bolt is ideal but I would be more worried about what he would do with the carcass! You can't bury it.
No it's not! Captive bolt would be bottom of my list. They have a small brain as a target and a captive bolt doesn't kill the horse, merely stuns it. You need to immediately bleed it out [messy] or pith it [not nice for owner to watch and dangerous for the man doing it].

My personal list in order or preference:
free bullet pistol>injection>shotgun>rifle [.22 RF more than adequate]>larger cal rifle>captive bolt.

You can bury a horse so long as it's a pet and not kept for food production. Horses have a derogation. Defra, UK - Animal health and welfare - Animal by-products - Fallen stock - Horse infomation
 
Funny things to shoot horses, small brain, imaginary line right eye to left ear and left eye to right ear where the lines cross is your money shot! Very thin skulls and easy to kill, I hasten to add not as a hobby!!!!!
 
I used to be in the knacker trade, and have shot many over the years, as Apache says, captive bolt is last on the list. I have shot horses with .22 rimfire, .32, .310 bell guns and even a .410 shotgun.
Also, if you have to do it at anytime, do the ear to eye line job and then shoot 1 inch above where lines meet.
 
I used to be in the knacker trade, and have shot many over the years, as Apache says, captive bolt is last on the list. I have shot horses with .22 rimfire, .32, .310 bell guns and even a .410 shotgun.
Also, if you have to do it at anytime, do the ear to eye line job and then shoot 1 inch above where lines meet.

Jack!! could you explain the ear to eye line?

Rgds, Buck.
 
Funny things to shoot horses, small brain, imaginary line right eye to left ear and left eye to right ear where the lines cross is your money shot! Very thin skulls and easy to kill, I hasten to add not as a hobby!!!!!

That is exactly the way it was described to me by a vet!

I was asked to shoot the horse of a friend that had a recurring nasal infection that was making it wild. The vet actually said it would eventually kill someone. The vet was present and I had humane dispatch on my cert anyway. The horse came into a bucket of food about 50m away. I had a .25-06 at the time and it barely twitched. The vet felt for a pulse within seconds of it going down and said that he could not find one. Regardless of whether a .22RF is adequate, is it necessarily the quickest? The vet told me that sometimes after using the .38 pistol they had, the pulse was often present for a minute or so afterwards.

Regardless, not pleasant task when the beast looked as good as this one...
 
Jack!! could you explain the ear to eye line?

Rgds, Buck.
Imagine the skull face-on to you. Draw an imaginary cross from right ear to left eye, then left ear to right eye. Aim for the middle of the cross or just above. Can vouch from personal experience that this works for cattle and a .22LR is perfect.... have done it numerous times. Someone else will have to confirm the same brain location for horses...
 
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You can bury a horse so long as it's a pet and not kept for food production. Horses have a derogation. Defra, UK - Animal health and welfare - Animal by-products - Fallen stock - Horse infomation

erm no you cant bury a horse or any stock this is incorrect information and it is very much illegal to bury dead animals.

just to correct that in case of confusion

There have been reports of an increased dumping of dead horses since the ban on burial. We do not have information on the numbers involved, however we would question whether any such incidents are necessarily related to the ban.

Individuals that dump horses may have buried them in the past, but if they did then one would expect them to continue with that practice as they must know that dumping is also illegal.

With regard to enforcement on both burial and dumping, local authorities are responsible and we would urge anyone with information about breaches of the law to report it to their local trading standards office for follow up action.
 
erm no you cant bury a horse or any stock this is incorrect information and it is very much illegal to bury dead animals.

just to correct that in case of confusion

There have been reports of an increased dumping of dead horses since the ban on burial. We do not have information on the numbers involved, however we would question whether any such incidents are necessarily related to the ban.

Individuals that dump horses may have buried them in the past, but if they did then one would expect them to continue with that practice as they must know that dumping is also illegal.

With regard to enforcement on both burial and dumping, local authorities are responsible and we would urge anyone with information about breaches of the law to report it to their local trading standards office for follow up action.

Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm No

Q4. My horse is a pet what is the position for me?
A. The Government has applied the derogation in Article 24(1)(a) of Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002 which allows the competent authority to decide that dead pet animals may be buried. In England, this has been done via regulation 28 of the ABPR 2005.

The definition of a pet animal given within the ABPR is: any animal belonging to species normally nourished and kept, but not consumed, by humans for purposes other than farming. Therefore, the ‘normal’ farm species, such as sheep, cattle, pigs, goats and poultry etc. would fall out-with this definition and would require disposal by an approved route other than burial.

Under a strict interpretation of the Regulation there is a case for arguing that no horse should be considered a pet. This is because in the EU as a whole the horse has a rather different status than it enjoys in the UK, i.e. it may be kept for human consumption. The same is not true for cattle, sheep and pigs which throughout the EU may on occasion nominally be kept as pets but do not belong to “a species normally nourished and kept but not consumed by humans…”.

However, the different status of the horse in the UK provides us with an opportunity to take a more flexible approach to interpreting the regulations where horses are kept as pets, and we have asked enforcement authorities (local authorities) to do this where possible.

Where local authorities decide to advise horse owners that a particular animal may be considered a pet and buried then they will want to give appropriate guidance. Location of the burial site, possibility of livestock access and potential for leaching into watercourses should be taken into account. Useful advice (PDF 110 KB) which was provided under the previous Animal By-Products Order 1999, when burial was permitted under defined circumstances, is available on the Defra website.

Please note this applies only to England -
 
For Uncle Buck
Imagine the skull face-on to you. Draw an imaginary cross from right ear to left eye, then left ear to right eye. Aim for the middle of the cross or just above. Can vouch from personal experience that this works for cattle and a .22LR is perfect.... have done it numerous times. Someone else will have to confirm the same brain location for horses... Doesn't work for pigs though - don't ask!

This is correct, for cattle. In the horse the brain sits higher in the skull, hence the target area being 1 inch above where the imaginary lines meet. Pigs, again slightly higher, best done with .410 IMO, they also have a tendency to kick like hell after being shot, so do not do this on a smallholders gravel drive with their car in range, brings a whole new meaning to the words "pebble dashed". Sheep, shoot from the back of the head between the ears and aim down the nose.
 
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