Horse Slaughter Revisited

[urbpan]

I'm listening to an NPR editorial railing against the slaughter and export of unwanted race horses , by Frank DeFord. I've mentioned the issue here, and at the vegetarians community before.

I'm a bit of a knee-jerk liberal, I confess. Usually on NPR I agree with the liberal editorials and disagree with the conservatives (yes they have conservative commentors). This issue isn't liberal or conservative, it's blindfolded sentiment versus no other solution offered.

The commentor did not offer an alternate method of disposing of the thousands of horses that are unwanted, nor did he mention that the same fate awaits cows (mentally equal if not equally aesthetically pleasing animals) by the thousand-fold. He did ask if we would do the same to our dogs and cats. Why not? 10 to 15 million unwanted animals euthanized every year, and we just send them up chimneys. I'd rather someone eat them than they become part of the greenhouse effect. Not very sentimental, I know, but I don't think that sentiment should be the primary factor in solving problems.

Comments

[wakarusa.livejournal.com]

I heard the same editorial this a.m. I'm all mixed up and upset about it. First thing I thought of, frankly, was greyhounds. Something like 50,000 of those are slaughtered a year, and I think the number for horses was 60,000 odd. Setting aside the issue of how animals are slaughtered - the conditions, the method of kill - greyhounds and horses are bred sheerly for sport, not even nominally for food. To me, this is even worse morally than a feedlot (and I do think those are about as low as you can go).

I grew up with both horses and cows, and while I know that the differences I see between them are in large part due to the livestock mindstock in which I was raised, I am a lot more upset about eating horses. But I don't like any animal being killed in the stun gun, assembly-line fashion, terrified and surrounded by strangers who could give less of a shit. It is not sentimental as much as - um - wow, I just had an Obi Wan moment! It feels like when Alderaan blew up, and he felt a "major disturbance in the Force." THAT kind of feeling. And while it is emotional, hopefully there's enough balance to it that it doesn't feel sentimental.

All that said, I did feel the commentator was sentimental, especially the point you quoted :) and for that reason, I guess he was actually conservative, or he would have been more conversant with PETA/ local meats issues and language. Or he was a knee-jerk liberal like you and me.