>>12592843Animals do things to offset a painful or discomforting stimulus. They will claw at their own skin to dislodge a thorn. If they have an internal pain, they will bash their heads against a cage to release endogenous opioids or perhaps to overwhelm the pain circuit in their spine (e.g., pain from leg injury will get blocked by pain signal from higher up in the body). They will also react to the physiological discomfort of stress, e.g., not eating for a few days after their infant dies as they instictually feel something similar to nausea or extended cardiovascular stress/high doses of inflammatory chemicals.
Horses in pain will panic and do things that lead to their own deaths. All mammals will engage in "extinction induced response variability" to offset a powerful painful stimulus, which might include running without looking.
But I don't think a horse intends to kill itself because I'm doubtful they have such a concept.
Perhaps elephants, great apes, and certain other intelligent animals who are known to engage in complex mourning behavior (visiting a dead infant's grave a decade later) might be able to commit suicide.
But suicide in elephants/great apes isn't well documented in what I've read. So it's rare enough that I wouldn't say it's "good."
