A Hero for Horses

Here's an amazing story about a man who wasn't about to give up when authorities told him no. This guy, Richard "Kudo" Kouto is a true modern hero, going the distance for animals being abused on dodgy farms in Florida. Read the awesomeness - we need more people like this guy in the world!

Even if I wasn't vegetarian (and I have been one my entire life, so not harming animals with my diet is more like free icing for me than anything) I would find the way animals are treated in slaughterhouses disgusting beyond belief. Horses though, hit hard for me, because they aren't like typical livestock animals. Some might argue, but those who would have probably never ridden a horse or been snuffled by one of these friendly animals. The difference between a horse and a chicken is that a chicken bred for slaughter knows that humans are awful. It knows that we are a predator and that if it can, it should escape us. Horses are different. They aren't bred for slaughter. They are bred to be our companions, our pets, our coworkers and our four-legged employees. Most people can say that they care about them. What really gets to me is that horses fit into the same category as cats and dogs - they are pets - nobody would ever consider eating a dog in North America, yet for some reason, there are those twisted minds who would consider eating a horse. Is it because they are herbivores and prey animals? Well, that same reason is what makes eating them sick. These are prey animals but more than that, these are prey animals which we teach to trust us. At least a meat cow has no love for us. Horses are taught to think of us as peculiar members of their families, their herds. So, would you kill your mother if you thought she looked tasty?

Probably not. You'd argue that it's different, because your mother is a human and your horse is a horse, but it isn't different. It all comes down to humans being selfish again and not recognizing that other species can be members of our family just as much as your brother or your father. I can see that my blog is pretty quickly becoming something of an animal rights blog, but I don't care. If I can, I'd like to open some eyes. Our species is tremendously stupid when it comes to animals and I'd like to correct that. Education is the cure.

Horses are more than just our family or our pets or our workers, who give us their labour in return for protection and food. Our relationship with them is one of symbiosis, as it is with all domestic animals. In return for their love and protection, we give dogs health care and food. In return for their love and protection from vermin, cats get protection from larger predators and food. In exchange for their draft services, we give horses food, healthcare and protection from danger. Why betray that symbiosis? Why forget what horses have done for us by eating them?

Horses, like dogs and cats, have given human kind more than we usually think about. Without the horse, our modern society would not exist at all. Horses brought us transportation, which brought us the world and knowledge exchange. You couldn't build a big ship without a horse to drag in the supplies if you lived in the old world. Horses have carried our dire messages, ran to war and to their deaths with us. They have protected us with their loyalty and have saved us when we were chased. Survival without them would not have been as possible in the days of our pioneer ancestors. Civilization would not have spread.

Maybe the spread of our civilization is a bad thing in the long run, but we still owe horses our respect as we owe it to all animals, whether they are domestic or not.

Personally, I think horses are sacred to us, as sacred as cats and dogs are. Contemporary religious people might argue that animals are not sacred at all, that they don't have souls, but such a proclamation is the same as Hitler's proclamation of a master race, of certain people being 'better' than others. No way. No human is better than any other human, though there are some who are dynamite like Richard Kouto, who have truly proved themselves as being better human beings than the rest of us. But no race is superior. Individuals can be through their powerful good deeds, but no race or species is superior. We are foolish to think that humanity is better. If we were, we'd be doing a much better job of regulating our own population and protecting the environment, but we aren't.

Buck up humans! Let's fight for our world!

If you need more reasons for why we shouldn't eat horses, read this. As it turns out, because they are our companions, they're often full of drugs. Do YOU want to eat drugged meat? NO.

On the subject of horses, here's a movie that promises to help open some eyes about all that they do for us and which opens the door to one of the greatest ways in which they sacrifice themselves working for us. Horses in war - you've seen horses charge in a multitude of movies, but here, finally, is the horse's perspective. What's it like to be a horse bearing some flailing idiot into the jaws of death? Personally, I'm quite excited to find out. Here comes an uncommon perspective from director Steven Spielberg. Here comes War Horse!