I purposely did not watch the Kentucky Derby this year because I do not believe an animal’s purpose is to entertain humans, and, in the case of horse racing, to make lots of money for them. I concur with a May 6 editorial in the New York Times on horse racing that, “the horses seem more like financial vehicles than animals with an existence of their own. The life of the money comes to seem just as important as the life of the horse.” So I was angered and saddened when I heard the news that one of the horses, Eight Belles, broke both of her front ankles and had to be euthanized. Questions are swirling as to whether the jockey lashed her to the finish line ignoring a telltale sign that she was injured; whether her trainer administered steroids to make her too large; or whether owner Rick Porter acted selfishly in entering the 3-year old filly in the Derby? (See Sally Jenkins Washington Post article.) This follows the another horse racing tragedy where another horse, Barbaro, was also euthanized eight months after he shattered his right hind leg at the start of the Preakness Stakes. It makes no sense that these animals had to suffer and die all to entertain and put lots of greenbacks in someone’s pocket. According to the the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit, there are 2 fatalities for every 1,000 starts on U.S. dirt tracks. Again quoting from the NYT editorial, “The first rule of racing must be the welfare of these horses. Nothing else is acceptable.”
Of course horse racing is unfortunately far from being the only activity where animals are used to entertain people and/or increase their bank accounts. Circuses force animals with the use of whips, sticks and bullhooks to perform unnatural acts such as jumping through fire hoops, standing on their heads, walking trunk-to-tail, skipping, crawling, twirling, hopping on their hind legs and rolling over in unison. While circus promoters claim their animals are well treated and that the animals like doing the tricks, this is far from the truth. For example, video footage taken between 2001 and 2006 of Ringling trainers and handlers shows that elephants were aggressively hooked, lame elephants were forced to perform and travel, and a trainer inflicted a bloody bullhook wound behind an elephant’s ear flap. According to David Hancocks, former director of the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, “When [circuses] portray animals as freaks and curiosities, devoid of context or dignity, circuses are perpetuating outdated attitudes. Wild animals in the circus are reduced to mere caricatures of their kind, exhibited just for financial gain. In this way, they corrupt our children, promoting the notion that exploitation and degradation is acceptable, even brave or funny.”
Then we also have the sadistic and illegal (in most states) dog fighting and cock fighting where once again humans profit at the expense of animals. These animals often die of blood loss, shock, dehydration, exhaustion, or infection hours or even days after the fight. I can’t even fathom why someone would support something that is so horrific and inhumane.
I hope that one day mankind will accept and honor the words of Albert Einstein:
A human being is part of the whole called by us universe , a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty...We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive."
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