Is it true that a pistol was carried on livestock flights in case a horse decided it didn’t like the cabin service?

Absolutely the case during my time on the operations. S&W in a locked, combination box. I suspect I was the only pilot who ever bothered to do the usual safety check on the thing at the start of a sequence. One wit opined that the reason for the large number of rounds carried in the box was so that the first umpteen could be used to drill a hole in the unfortunate horse's head and the final round to dispatch it to the big clover field in the sky.

The best tale, however, was from IPEC. The then CP was being quizzed by the relevant DCA chap for his periodic tick in the box. When asked whether he saw a need to carry a weapon when freighting tons of oysters and such like delights, his response was along the lines of "Oh, I don't think that would be entirely necessary. I suspect that a plate, cutlery, and Worcestershire sauce would be more than adequate for the hazards and risks involved …."

Thank you JT! I seem to remember being told about it one day in the hangar. I well remember Wombat Squadron and their badge on the nose. I also remember the LAMES christening them “the golden goose” for the periodic structural checks on the wing planks. I was lectured on the sophistication of the Electra’s systems as well. I was told they were far ahead of their time when originally designed.

In Cathay we carried a lot of horses and the captain was issued with a Humane Killer, a gun thingie that fired a bolt six inches into the horse's skull. How you were supposed to position it on the currently panicking horses head, between his eyes, was beyond me. But this didn't fall to us, as we carried one or more horse handlers whenever there were horses (the handlers were a VERY interesting group of people; FE's were very tame in comparison) and only they were allowed to leave the upper deck in flight. That suited me fine.

But being a firearm you had to sign for the weapon; often in typical mangled Chinglish it was described as a "Human Killer"!

As I remember,
As a freshly minted (1982) FO on the Ansett Wombat L188, we carried a 45 in a sealed case with about 10 bullets whenever livestock was carried.
It was the FO duty to sign and get it from Freight Office. We had minimal training on loading and operating of such big black ****er, we never trained to fire it. We where told to shoot UP, never DOWN, controls and hydraulics under floor.
Just before departure to TAS late one night, got a call, FO to office to P U gun. Quick look at freight manifest, only a smalll cage of birds. WTF?
Run to the shed, tried to argue, with a smirk on their face the office staff said, son, rules are rules, if those birds go bersek, just shoot them.
What a great time we had in the Wombat Squadron
A great bunch of crew

Mark WB, in my mob it was some sort of lethal injection, definitely not a tranquiliser. We were cautioned about the risks of mishandling the contraption. This was, by the way, back in the 1970s.

As a callow ground controller at Melbourne, I was occasionally greeted by a wombat departing the runway with the words "Melbourne Ground this is Wombat (1,2,or3) snuffling and grunting to the Wombat Shed."

Back in 1982 I was tasked with an Ansett Freight Charter from Tulla to Adelaide where we were to pick up a Tiger and bring him back to Melbourne in a Setair DC3.
Before we left Tulla I was handed the said wooden box containing the pistol to which I enquired "what I am to do with this?" I was then told about the tiger to be transported back to Melbourne before being shipped on to the Amsterdam Zoo. Well when we got to Adelaide I found the poor old tiger was in a steel barred cage which in turn was inside a wooden cage, something like an early version of an overpack.
Tiger was in no condition to even stand as like all drugged cats, his eyes were only half open and his head was lolling about. So any thoughts of using the pistol, should he even get out, were firmly put away.
The biggest issue was getting the cage on board as the aircraft I had that night was the only one (was MWQ then and now is back to its original rego of MMA) in our fleet of three that had the galley at the rear and that required some substantial juggling to get the cage past the galley with both cargo doors open. I had never ever fired a gun let alone handled one apart from the 303's used for drill when we were cadets at High School so it all seemed a bit of a laugh at the time.

While we are on the subject of carrying a firearm on the Electra, there was a case of having to shoot a horse on a charter NZ to MEL. Late seventies I think. Horse went berserk in flight after playing up pre flight.

Amazed CASA, or whoever they called themselves then, allowed untrained crew to discharge a firearm in flight.

Would have loved to sit in on the Enquiry to hear the comments. Upshot was that thereafter we carried a vet with a big needle.

Back in the dim dark ages of my early flight training there was a Civil Aviation Order that stated " For the carriage of swine, the crate must be constructed in a manner so as to prevent escape by rooting"

Knowing the speed and efficiency of the Regulatory Reform Program, that Order is probably still valid and current.

CC