Friday, Jul. 14, 2006 - 9:26 a.m.
Lament for a Horse
Call me hormonal, oversensitive, or
whatever you want. Say, "Its only a horse. Why are you so bent
out of shape?" but the situation with Barbaro has me very
upset. It was horrifying to see him shatter his leg at the Preakness.
Shocking, gross and disgusting are even words I would use. And now, after
what seemed to be a positive recovery, he has taken a turn for the worse, and
the odds of him surviving are dropping by the hour. There are so many
troublesome events going on in the world right now such as the Israeli attacks
on Lebanon, but this one horse has gripped peoples' emotions like nothing
else. Unlike those events of conflict which are two sided man-made and
controlled events, so too is this a man made event, but of a different
kind. These animals are used for our enjoyment, our entertainment, and
they live to do what they do. So its especially upsetting to see a
situation where an animal has little or no control over his/her circumstances
and is suffering as a result of what we have used them for, whether the
suffering was intended or not. I am not off on some PETA inspired animal
rights rant here wherein I condemn any use of animals for the betterment of
human kind, but when animals suffer as a result of our exploitation of them, and
something as frivolous as racing, it does upset me. This poor horse, has
no control over his situation, unlike people for the most part who create their
own situations, and is in pain and has a life threatening infection. His
owners I know are paying for THE best possible care he can be given, and I know
they have his best interest at heart. He is apparently on pain killers and
is being kept comfortable. However, if it is deemed that the infection
cannot be resolved, then they will have to make the difficult decision to put
him down. It will be so very sad to see an animal with such spirit lose
his fight. This developing situation reminds me of
one of the single most saddening and heartbreaking things I have ever seen on
television. A program aired several years ago on The Discovery Channel
called War Dogs, America's Forgotten Heroes.
The program was about the use of dogs by the military in active war
situations. The main focus was on the Viet Nam war. The Army
actively recruited family pets to go into service and many hundreds of families
sent their beloved pets overseas to serve our country. Dogs were used in
every capacity from sentry, to mine sniffing, to sniffing booby trap
triggers. Many personal stories were told by veterans whose lives were
saved by these animals and I have never witnessed soldiers, former dog handlers,
break down in tears because of how their lives were touched by their canine
comrades, like I did watching this program. These dogs, once the conflict
ended, were deemed "expendable" and were left in Viet Nam and
eventually destroyed with less than 200 dogs being returned to the United
States, and to their families. And again, these former dog handlers, many
of whom are in their fifties and sixties, broke down because they were so upset
at how their fellow soldier dogs, animals who served their country through no
choice of their own, were treated like garbage by the government. Both
Tarik and I were absolutely in tears before the end of the program and talked
quite a while about the use of animals and how they have no free will.
Both of us are of the opinion that animals enrich our lives beyond measure, and
too that many lives in Viet Nam were saved because of the service of the dogs,
but to exploit them in this manner, when they have no voice of their own, is
very heartbreaking. So,
again, call me hormonal, oversensitive, an animals rights freak, or what have
you, but animals suffering from our exploitation is heartbreaking. Song
Virus du Jour: "Let My Love Open the Door" ~ Pete Townsend Useless
Trivia du Jour: Never knew this until today, but Frank Oz is the voice
of the Swedish Chef, AND he is English. Preggo
Craving du Jour: Chocolate Chip Cookies
More updates on another blog home. - Wednesday, Feb. 06, 2008
Where are my zzzzzz's? - Thursday, Nov. 08, 2007
Halloween '07 - Friday, Nov. 02, 2007
Hallween is All Good! - Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007