Sedating a horse for the purpose of film production

[Graphic][1] Manuel Magalhaes-Sant’Ana is a European specialist in animal welfare science, ethics and law. He received his DVM in 2001 from the University of Porto, Portugal, his MSc in bioethics in 2008 and his PhD in veterinary ethics education in 2014. He was Newman Fellow in veterinary ethics between 2014 and 2016 at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin, Ireland. He is currently a researcher at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in the University of Lisbon, Portugal. #### The dilemma As an equine practitioner, you have been asked to work for a film company. The role will involve the sedation and/or short general anaesthesia of a horse for the purpose of filming. Your excitement of the prospect of working for the film industry is at odds with your ethical intuition regarding the procedure. You look for guidance in the RCVS Code of Conduct but find little information. What should you do? Animals have been used in films since the dawn of cinema. For decades, harmful use of animals was permitted and even considered acceptable. Particularly notorious events were the killing of about 150 horses in Fred Niblo’s 1925 film ‘Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ’ … [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif