I haven't been keeping track of how many animal-friendly New York Times stories and opinions I've seen in the past year, but the pace seems to be quickening.
This time out, the newspaper's official opinion regards Barbaro, a horse injured while being raced at the Preakness back in May of Last year. It's reminiscent of a powerful column I saw shortly after the incident in The Philadelphia Daily News.Sadly, Barbaro died yesterday, after months of complications and close veterinary attention, the likes of which no horse has probably ever seen. As I mentioned in my original post regarding the incident, stud fees may have had something to do with the attention, but I don't want to detract from any true feeling Barbaro's owners had for him. I would hope that this long ordeal has made them think a little bit more about what they put horses through out on that track for the sake of their own financial gain.
As for The New York Times' thoughts on the matter, they are to be commended:
Humans are not especially good at noticing horses, but Barbaro was easy to notice. And if his life caused us to pay attention to the possibilities of all horses, his death should cause us to pay attention to the tragedy inherent in the end of so many horses. Barbaro’s death was tragic not because it was measured against the races he might have won or even against the effort to save his life. It was tragic because of what every horse is.To further that, all horses deserve to be kept off race tracks and out of slaughterhouses. They deserve to not be bred for sport, merely to satisfy our cruel ends.
You would have to look a long, long time to find a dishonest or cruel horse. And the odds are that if you did find one, it was made cruel or dishonest by the company it kept with humans. It is no exaggeration to say that nearly every horse — Barbaro included — is pure of heart. Some are faster, some slower. Some wind up in the winner’s circle. But they should all evoke in us the generosity of conscience — a human quality, after all — that was expended in the effort to save this one horse.
This opinion from The Times gives me the smallest glimmering of hope that some day horse racing will be viewed in this country the way bullfighting is regarded in Catalonia today.
Photo: Paul J. Richards AFP/Getty Images
Labels: animals in entertainment, horses, sports
