Police horse Shaktimaan loses battle with life

Dehradun – Shaktimaan, an Uttarakhand Police horse that was attacked in a BJP rally last month, died on Wednesday, days after it got a prosthetic limb, an official said.

Vets attending the 13-year-old animal said it had not responded to a prosthetic leg brought from the US. The horse died on Wednesday afternoon, they said.

It was at the police lines in Dehradun, where a group of policemen and an international animal rights activist from the US, Jamie Vaughan, were looking after it.

“Shaktiman lost its battle with life after a brave fight of 37 days. I salute its bravery and also Dehradun police,doctors and Jamie who looked after Shakti and wanted it to live,” filmmaker Vinod Kapri told IANS. Kapri recently made a documentary on life and the struggle of the horse.

“It’s not a death of a horse but a child in home. We treated Shaktimaan like our own child,” an emotional Kapri said.

PETA India chief executive Poorva Joshipura said the horse “was essentially killed the day its leg was broken”. “Our equine veterinarian always warned his quality of life would be forever damaged and he may not live.”

Badly injured in the rally, Shaktiman’s leg had to be amputated later. A few days back, another US resident Tim Mahoney travelled all the way from Kentucky to Dehradun at his own expense to deliver a prosthetic limb for the injured horse.