Horse Sense
by Rambeau
A regular reader of A Pawprint In Time, I am always on the lookout for news articles related to animal welfare. Although concerned with the treatment of all critters, I am particularly partial to dogs and horses. I commented on Em’s Friday post about losing precious canine companions, and for the past several years have been in a relationship with a special lady who has had horses for over 30 years. Moosie’s post from a week ago, Doing Our Part, touched on a topic which has been a concern for some time, the slaughter of horses for human food consumption.
About a week ago, I ran across an editorial by The Goshen News in Goshen, Indiana, entitled “Congress shouldn’t try to regulate our choice of food”, which referred to action by both the U.S. House and Senate on legislation to ban the sale of horses for slaughter, ultimately for use as an ingredient in human food. The editors argue that rather than be considered “companion animals”, horses are no better than what are considered livestock, those animals that non-vegetarians and non-vegans normally include in their diet. They opine that “elevating certain segments of the animal kingdom in the food chain” is wrong, and that eating horse meat is no “more or less wrong” than eating beef, chicken, pork, etc. Even dogs and cats were conspicuously absent from their idea of “companion animals”!
I am not a vegetarian, and I will leave this debate to others, but I take issue with the idea that horses are not companion animals. In the few short years I have been getting to know horses in general, and eight horses in particular, I can attest to the fact that in most cases today, the horse has a unique personality. He will bond as well as a dog or cat to his human caretaker, as I outlined in my letter to the editor. Do I make “horse sense”?
Rambeau
A regular reader of A Pawprint In Time, I am always on the lookout for news articles related to animal welfare. Although concerned with the treatment of all critters, I am particularly partial to dogs and horses. I commented on Em’s Friday post about losing precious canine companions, and for the past several years have been in a relationship with a special lady who has had horses for over 30 years. Moosie’s post from a week ago, Doing Our Part, touched on a topic which has been a concern for some time, the slaughter of horses for human food consumption.
About a week ago, I ran across an editorial by The Goshen News in Goshen, Indiana, entitled “Congress shouldn’t try to regulate our choice of food”, which referred to action by both the U.S. House and Senate on legislation to ban the sale of horses for slaughter, ultimately for use as an ingredient in human food. The editors argue that rather than be considered “companion animals”, horses are no better than what are considered livestock, those animals that non-vegetarians and non-vegans normally include in their diet. They opine that “elevating certain segments of the animal kingdom in the food chain” is wrong, and that eating horse meat is no “more or less wrong” than eating beef, chicken, pork, etc. Even dogs and cats were conspicuously absent from their idea of “companion animals”!
I am not a vegetarian, and I will leave this debate to others, but I take issue with the idea that horses are not companion animals. In the few short years I have been getting to know horses in general, and eight horses in particular, I can attest to the fact that in most cases today, the horse has a unique personality. He will bond as well as a dog or cat to his human caretaker, as I outlined in my letter to the editor. Do I make “horse sense”?
Rambeau
2 comments:
Thanks for writing this Rambeau! I am touched by how much you care for horses, and I wish I could do more to help them myself...
As for vegetarianism, I have wanted to become one. And 'wanting' isn't good enough I know. But I find it so hard to come off meat, however I have promised myself for the furry ones sake I shall soon be a vegetarian.
It is my choice, I can't say I love animals and slander every person who hunts them etc. To then be the one to fuel the hunting and merciless killing...
Therefore I am going to become a vegetarian, I have been cutting it out of my diet slowly.
But I do think it is time, to take much more of a dramatic course of action. And say goodbye to meat forever...
Big hugs, your an inspiration!
Em x
Well said.
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