Goodbye Barbaro
..... you will always be a champion of our hearts .. you gave it the gallant fight but the odds caught up to you. I'm reminded of Dan Fogelberg's song "Run for the Roses" -- "It's the chance of a lifetime in a lifetime of chance."
In case somebody doesn't follow horse racing, Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro was euthanized after complications from his breakdown at the Preakness in May. He shattered his right hind leg, an injury so severe that most horses would have been put down right away. Doctors operated several times on both legs over eight months.
Sadly, he recently developed laminitis in both front feet .. a death knell for horses. It just wasn't fair. He fought so hard ...
But Barbaro’s legacy has a chance to be long-lasting. He delivered the very important message that we care about the health and safety of our horses. Attention has been brought to the need to ban early training (before the horse's bones are mature), it's not fair to the horse to start heavy training at two-three years old.
Just days before Barbaro was humanely put down, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act was reintroduced in Congress. While we're worrying about this one magnificent horse, more than 100,000 horses were slaughtered last year in the US and shipped to Europe and Japan for human consumption.
Each one of these animals suffered extreme inhumane conditions while being transported and cruelty during the slaughter process.
Surely a nation that can show so much care and concern about the life and death of one racehorse, should be able to muster the compassion to pass legislation that would end this cruelty to our fellow creatures.
Horse slaughter is a profoundly inhumane industry. Discarded show horses, broken down racehorses, Premarin foals (another travesty!), wild horses and carriage horses are crammed inside double-deck livestock trucks built for smaller animals .. with not enough head room .. and they're in there 36, 72 hours with no water or food.
I won't even tell you what happens at the slaughterhouse and processing plants .. it will haunt you if you have a soft heart for animals.
None of this horse meat they are slaughtered for is eaten in the US .. nor are the companies owned by Americans. They are all foreign-owned and they are subsidized by the US government to the point of $5 million a year.
It all goes against America's love affair with the horse .. the horse is a part of our culture. We settled the West by horseback .. the horse helped us survive and is a part of us. We need to make sure the horse is treated with respect.
And you can do something -- Please write and ask your representatives in congress to vote for the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. It's time to permanently ban the slaying of our horses for dinner tables in Italy, France, Belgium, and Japan.
To find your federal legislators, try:
Congress.org: www.Congress.org
USA Senate: www.senate.gov
USA House of Representatives: www.house.gov
Congress.org: www.Congress.org
USA Senate: www.senate.gov
USA House of Representatives: www.house.gov
A sample email:
"Please vote for the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act.
Horse slaughter is a profoundly inhumane industry. These animals suffer extreme cruelty and inhumane conditions in the transportation and slaughter process.
It's time to respect the important role the horse played in our history and permanently ban the slaying of our horses for dinner tables in Italy, France, Belgium, and Japan."
We don't have to slaughter these beautiful animals for food, there are many animal rights groups who find homes for them in retirement farms .. or with loving private owners who have a pasture for them to live out their days peacefully.
