With all the news that has been banging around the news cycle lately, it's probable that "horse getting loose on a cargo plane" wasn't at the top of anyone's list, and yet, here we are: Last Thursday (Nov 9th), a 747 cargo plane that had just departed JFK Airport en route to Belgium was forced to dump 20 tons of fuel and return to that airport. Why? Because a horse got loose in the cargo hold. One has to admit that was a foal bit of luck, cutting the horse's trip short when it was on the way to becoming a real glove-trotter.

A 747 cargo plane carrying a horse had to dump 20 tons of fuel and return to JFK Airport on Thursday after the horse escaped its crate inside the plane.

The plane was in the air less than a half hour when it turned back.

The pilots could be heard telling Air Traffic Control that they couldn't resecure the horse and needed a vet when they got back on the ground.

"We are a cargo plane with a live animal, a horse, on board," a pilot said to ATC. "The horse has broken out of its stall. There's no issue with flying, but we need to go back to New York as we can't resecure the horse."

This horse, it turns out, was one of 15 on the flight. Sadly, things did not end well for the horse.

According to John Cuticelli, the chairman of ARK, the company that handles all animal export and quarantine operations at JFK, turbulence struck and the horse “jumped and managed to get its two front legs over the (front) barrier” of its holding stall “and then got jammed,” per CNN.

The horse was then suspended over the barrier, with its front legs on one side and its hind legs still inside its stall.

Upon landing, the animal was met with an emergency response team, but the other 14 horses had to be taken out in order to “get the equipment in to get the horse out,” Cuticelli said.

“We dispersed veterinary care, animal handlers, medical equipment, horse slings, a horse ambulance, everything necessary to accommodate that horse,” he told the outlet.

Once the horse was extricated, the injuries it had sustained were too severe and it was euthanized, he said.

The other 14 horses are reportedly in stable condition.

Folks who know anything about horses know that a horse will want to be free to run whinny wants to, so from the horse's point of view, it may well seem a nightmare to be trapped in an airline stable and launched skyward. Of course, animals have to be restrained on aircraft, especially one the size of a horse; the slightest turbulence could cause a loose animal to be injured, and horses are high-strung and tend to panic if they have fallen and can't giddyap.

This animal-caused emergency was at least resolved quickly, even if sadly for the equine passenger. We live in a time, after all, when beavers are a threat to human existence (which may or may not mean a dam thing), and the town of Ojai, California, in the midst of a famous and well-known elephant habitat, has recognized pachyderm rights; that little mountain town has obviously already solved every other problem facing it. It's pasture time the elephants were properly recognized.

This seems appropriate.