Horses may be drugged for Stones gig

Reuters/Yahoo!News ^ | 4/18/2007 | Ljilja Cvekic

[Rio]

Preparations to sedate as many as 300 horses stabled at Belgrade's racecourse to keep them calm during a Rolling Stones concert have enraged Serb animal lovers who are lobbying to have the gig moved to another venue. The horses will be only a few metres from the stage.

"Horses differ, the same as people. Some are more nervous, more skittish," said hostler Jovanka Prelic. "If they get too nervous or start to panic during the concert, they'll get sedatives."

The dozen equestrian clubs at the course were hoping concert organizers would allow a sufficient number of personnel to be at the stables during the concert to give the animals the pills, Prelic added.

Serbia's biggest animal protection society, ORCA, says holding the concert would be extremely harmful to the horses, and sedating them is not the answer.

"Research has shown that noise and vibrations are the strongest causes of stress to animals," Elvir Burazerovic, head of ORCA, told Reuters.

"Surely our big city has enough open spaces where even 150,000 people can fit in. We think the Hippodrome should be left to horses," he said.

Moving the horses elsewhere was not an option, he added.

"Transport also causes a lot of stress and besides, there's no alternative location for the horses."

The sedative would be diazepam. In Serbia it trades under the name Bensedin, a very popular drug during the 78 days of NATO air strikes in 1999, when much of Belgrade's adult population was on tranquillizers.

ORCA said that if it failed to convince the organizers to change the concert venue, it would contact the Rolling Stones directly and ask them to use their influence.

"I believe we'll succeed since such a reputable band will not allow such a stain on its record," Burazerovic said.

[Rio]

Can't get no satisfaction...

[Rio]

horse ping.

[dfwgator]

Wild horses can’t keep them away.

[cripplecreek]

I’m thinking about Dover Del. where there’s a horse track inside the speedway.

[FormerACLUmember]

And in a related story, Keith Richards will be snorting cocaine laced Serbian horse poop.

[Larry Lucido]

Drugs at a Stones concert? Say it ain’t so!

[MarkL]

That'll be a first... Giving animal tranqs to horses at a Stones concert! Usually, those are strictly limited to Keef and the fans!

Mark

[Spok]

“Horses may be drugged for Stones gig”

Isn’t everyone?

[HairOfTheDog]

Weird place to have a concert. I'd be moving my horse out of there.

Ping!

It does sortof remind me of a conversation I had with my neighbor around the 4th of July. I went over there to find out what his fireworks plans were, so I knew whether I had to sedate my own horses. I said "It's OK if you are, I just need to know, because I have horsie downers for them, but I need to give them the drugs two hours before they're gonna be needed". His eyes lit up "What kind of horsie drugs?". In hindsight, I should have worked them a deal... let the neighbor get zonked out on horse tranquilizers for the 4th, and I could have had some peace and quiet.

[tranzorZ]

Wouldn’t this articl be appropriate for “this is not a ping” ping list

[HairOfTheDog]

I don’t know how the “this is not a ping” ping list is applied :~)

[BlackVeil]

enraged Serb animal lovers ...

Golly!

[vetvetdoug]

The crowd will be stoned, the horses will be stoned, and the only ones that are off drugs now are the Stones. Times are a changin'.

I used my horses for reenactments, they used to run toward the sound of the cannon and guns. They didn't blink when I used to crank up my 100 Watt JCM 900 amps to full blast on my deck.

[Mr. Brightside]

Can’t wait to see a 1300 pound stud jump into the Mosh Pit.

[Farmer Dean]

Now you have to worry about the neighbor breaking into your house/barn in search of horse downers!

[Tail Gunner John]

The Stones were at Churchill Downs last fall and I didn’t hear of any problems with horses.

[DeaconBenjamin2]

They won’t be his beast of burden.

[HairOfTheDog]

The crowd will be stoned, the horses will be stoned, and the only ones that are off drugs now are the Stones. Times are a changin'.

LOL... Now that's funny :~)

[HairOfTheDog]

That thought ~did~ occur to me!

[word_warrior_bob]

What are they going to inject them with the blood of Keith Richards?