Eight Belles

Respect for life is the most important thing in life, in my opinion.  It’s one thing to see an animal die to become food.  It’s another for people to take pleasure in the animals (or any living things for that matter) demise.  While it’s good to see that no one was cheering at the fate of Eight Belles (of course at a horse race no one wants to see a horse get hurt), and I have no doubt the trainers, riders, etc. care for their animals, it does make me wonder how they consider “caring” in terms of the horse genetic make-up.  For the most part, I don’t think those involved consider it “not caring” to breed lighter bones or larger muscles into a horse.  But – Maybe now they will take note?

It’s sad to see anything suffer, especially when such things are caused by the carelessness of us.  In some way the animals needs to be better seen – but how?  Well, i’m no biologist or horse expert but of course I have something to say about it.  

In order to have respect for the horse, a balance between performance and health needs to be found.  I’m sure there are many physicals that a horse has to pass in order to qualify for racing.  What about another standard that includes, say, muscle and bone ratios or some physical indicators that might predict such problems?  That’s way out of my department, but I’m thinking there has to be some way to regulate it.  Maybe breeders could be penalized according to how many of their horses die/get injured prematurely…?  That idea might be a little less preventitive, but it might change the way people breed.  I don’t know.

I’d also like to make one more comment about the suffering of many unnoticed animals.  Though no one is really taking pleasure in the suffering of, say a cow that dies for my burger I eat tonight, there is no reason that it’s death should not be as quick and painless as possible.  For every Eight Belles that dies, there’s an unimaginable number of animals that suffer because no one takes note.  While I’m not a vegetarian and consider myself a part of nature, I think I can do a small part and eat one less burger, a little smaller steak, or maybe just some pasta instead.

p.s.  I’m wondering if some day i’m going to end up a vegetarian.  Who knows?