Zeta: a Horse, a Crossbow, and Equine First Aid

"Horses gave first aid to pal"
Andrew Parker, The Sun (May 18, 2010)

"A HORSE shot twice with a crossbow by callous yobs survived after four fellow steeds spent three hours taking turns - to LICK the wound clean.

"Mare Zeta came within a whisker of death after one of the bolts bounced off her rib while another lodged an inch from her lung.

"Evil louts blasted the 20-year-old - a competitor in show-jumping and dressage events across the UK — in the stomach as she grazed in a field.

"But four other competition horses in the same field 'nursed' Zeta by nuzzling her for three-and-a-half hours while taking turns to lick the wound.

"Touching

"Owner Jo Young, 39, said the four horses saved Zeta's life.

"The mum-of-two said: 'It was really touching that when she was found the other horses in the field were nuzzling her for comfort and licking the wound.

" 'They kept the wound clean which would have prevented it from being infected by bacteria. It also helped to stem the blood flow...'..."

Now, I rather doubt that the other horses thought "bacteria." On the other hand, as the article points out, they're herd animals - and that's a 'herd' thing to do.

It's also a touching, feel-good story.

An American news service, repeating this story, left out phrases like "callous yobs" and "evil louts," partly - I suspect - because not many Americans know what a "yob" is: and our best and brightest haven't liked words like "evil" for several decades. "Evil" is so - judgmental. After all, some people enjoy shooting horses: and how can society impose its artificial values on the Individual?¹ (A yob, by the way, is "a cruel and brutal fellow" (Princeton's WordNet))

Back to those heroic horses.

The Sun's article goes into quite a bit of detail about the incident: including the reaction of neighbors to Zeta's experience. They're appalled.

And there's a police/RSPCA investigation in progress. I rather hope that whoever shot Zeta is caught and sanctioned. There's no telling what that individual's next target would be.

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¹ Interestingly, the idea that cruelty to animals is morally wrong wasn't in the list of repressive authoritarian restrictions on free spirits. I suppose the back-to-nature kick had something to do with that. Besides, most people have this idea that it's not nice to pull wings off butterflies - or shoot horses.

I'm a practicing Catholic, so I have to believe that being cruel to animals isn't right. I don't have any problem with that - I like fuzzy chicks and cute bunny rabbits as much as most folks do.

More:

• "Animals: Yeah, the Catholic Church has Rules About Them, Too"
  (August 17, 2009)