Rare horse gets reverse vasectomy

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Veterinarians at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., report that they have performed the first successful reverse vasectomy on a Przewalski’s horse.

The zoo, part of the Smithsonian Institution, says it’s the first such procedure on an endangered equine species. The horse in question, above, is named Minnesota.

The horse is native to China and Mongolia and was declared extinct in the wild in 1970, according to the National Zoo. There are about 1,500 Przewalski’s horses in zoos worldwide, with small populations of reintroduced animals in Asia. (For the record, it’s pronounced zshah-VAL-skeez.)

Minnesota received a vasectomy at a previous institution in 1999. He moved to the National Zoo in 2006. We can’t help wondering if he’s another example of a patient freaked out by stirrups.

-- Steve Padilla