equicide

plural equicides

1. countableuncountableThe killing of a horse.

   But had Mary shot Pond Pen, the things that alleged race horse had done to her would certainly have caused any fair judge to pronounce Pond Pen’s violent passing justifiable equicide.

   1951, George Sessions Perry, Tale of a Foolish Farmer, McGraw-Hill Book Company, page 33

   5 more examples

   Before him lay extended the brown body of a donkey, whose broken lariot and fixed eye told the tale. I thought for a moment that its hoof was moving; but before a word had passed, all was still.[…] / “Messieurs, it was not my fault. I told them at Weggis the animal was too small; but they forced him on me, saying that he was a convenient size. My legs touched ground. They said I should escape a fall. The donkey was hungry and emulous. I had no guide to restrain him; but I did not urge him. He weakened as he warmed. He drank of the cold rills. He brayed aloud. He passed the châlet with a snort;—he snorted out his breath. Ah, Messieurs! it is all over with him and me. How shall I get down to-morrow with a gout and no donkey? This air is sharpening it into rheumatism,” swore he with a German oath, as, resting on one leg, he / “Steadfastly gazed on the face of the dead, / And bitterly thought of the morrow.” / “Rank equicide!” growled the Scot. “Puir mewel!” / By this time, the entire procession was gathered round the deceased.

   1852 July, R. M. Richardson, “Men, Manners, and Mountains. Mounting the Righi, in Three Heats.”, in Sartain’s Magazine, volume XI, number 1, page 23, column 1

   The idea of making beef out of that noble animal, for which every man of heart entertains an affection only second to that which binds him to his own race—the animal which approaches nearer than any other of the four-footed creation to man, in the nobler traits of soul and character—could only emanate from bipeds of the Greeley species. There should be a law passed for such sneaks, against killing the horse to eat, unless it be a broken-legged or used-up animal, which would be relieved by death, and that would be pretty good diet for such creatures. The offense of equicide must be defied and provided for by our next Legislature, or the Greeleyites will be getting up a horse-eating phalanx and party.

   1857 August 8, Memphis Daily Appeal, Memphis, Tenn., page 2

   There was a large band of wild horses belonging to Captain Sutter, which were ranging in the foot-hills on that side of the river where the emigrants’ camp was located. The question of killing one of these had been seriously discussed. The proposition had been earnestly opposed by Martin Murphy, who had declared that it was not food fit for human beings, and that although in the last stages of starvation his stomach would revolt at such diet. The respect that the young men had for Mr. Murphy restrained them from committing equicide for some time. But at last it became a question of horse meat or starvation.

   1888, H. S. Foote, editor, Pen Pictures from the Garden of the World—or—Santa Clara County, California. […], Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, page 53, column 1

   “Murder Makes the Mare Co,” by Jack Oolph, deals with horse-loving Doc connor who dredges Into the lives of his Broadway clientele to learn the answer to an equicide and the murders preceding the death of a promising mare.

   1950 October 4, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., page 25

   For, as soon as the serious matters of “settin’ them up” had been attended to, the first court trial in the history of the Territory—“for wilful and malicious equicide”—would get under way.

   c. 1951, T. J. Kerttula, D. L. McDonald, “Hoss Murder”, in American Cattle Producer, page 11, column 1

2. countableuncountableOne who or that which kills a horse.

   One Mr. Shrock, who was pursuing the Taylor brothers, managed to shoot his own horse, through and through. The crowd made the equicide stand by the dead beast and be photographed.

   1894 May 25, “Exchange Notes”, in The Springfield Leader, number 46, Springfield, Mo., page 2, column 3

   2 more examples

   Fathers of families with corpulent wives and a numerous progeny, never heed the torture they impose upon the unhappy animal but they one and all crowd into the feeaton with a turn over seat and drive away with their families to Clapton, Hackney, Turnham Green or Bow—in short wherever their country box may be situated. That diminutive quadruped, the pony, too, is enlisted in the barbarous cause, and is made, now-a-days, to do the duty of a dray-horse: it is really monstrous to see the work they are called upon to perform. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals should look to this. The heartless drivers of these “equicides,” or horse-killing carriages know little and care less about rotatory motion,—they are not aware that the smaller a wheel is in circumference the heavier is the draft. The ladies, poor souls, imagine that because the wheels are small, the carriage must be light;

   1840 June, Dragsman, “Another Chapter on Driving”, in The Sportsman (Second Series), volume II, number VI, London: […] the Office, […], page 407

   About seventy equicides assembled at the fixture specified in the card of “The Meets,” that is to say, The Black Bull, on a foggy, splashy, mnddy,^([sic – meaning muddy]) fishing, Scotch misty, egg flip-drinking day.

   1853 March 7, The Freeman’s Journal, Dublin, page 3