Ethics of Breeding - from Eventing-a-Gogo

Here's a really effective article that I found which took (some of) the words about my opinions on breeding right out of my mouth. It's written very nicely and thoughtfully, so I thought it should be passed on. :)

The Original Purpose Of: Horse Racing

So, this is an idea I just came up with approximately two seconds ago, but hopefully, it'll be a good idea for a series on the blog!

Horse racing is quite likely one of the oldest sports in the world; back before the ferarri was invented, Equus ferus caballus was the fastest thing that mankind had. It's likely that testosterone-charged men were showing off with their own speed long before they ever encountered four legged vehicles but when our ancestors saw the horse, they probably thought the following:

"Wow! That animal is fast! If I rode it I could get places faster!"

The problem here, as with any animal is that most animals don't domesticate themselves. I mean, cats did, but cats are sort of weird. I'm not exactly sure how horses were domesticated and it's likely that they started out as a source of food (sadly) but soon enough our ancestors realized that there was a far greater worth in its flight friend E. f. caballus. Eventually, after people had gotten over the macho-ism involved with 'HAHA look I rode the wild horse! Bet you can't do that!' and after people started breeding horses to be ridden (or to pull things first as the case may have been according to anthropology) instead of eaten, people started wondering who had the best horses and there was only really one way to find out:

Horse racing.

The thing is, back in the day when racing horses first became more than just a thing people did for fun amongst buddies, racing was really not about money or riches at all, but about finding out who had the best equine bloodlines to breed to. This, of course led to wealth as Sheikh #1 toted the fastest stallion which Sheikh #2 wanted to breed his prize mares to and Sheikh #1 wasn't about to let his precious stud horse get laid without some compensation, if he let it happen at all.

Horse racing still remains to be, at its heart, a game about deciding and finding out whose horses are the best of the best. The sport probably evolved from tiny local races to long distance 2,000 mile jaunts in Arabia to the sport we know today here in North America. The Arabian horse has without any question dominated horse racing as it has given rise to the thoroughbred, the quarterhorse and all other swift breeds that we know today. However, people seem to forget the serious purpose of racing and that once upon a time, our ancestors may have depended on these competitions to breed faster horses which could help them in their very survival. In a sense, competitions like horse racing are a way of replicating natural selection, since only the very strongest, fastest, most enduring animals get to breed - just like in nature. This artificial form of natural selection is what produced the domestic horses we see today and not just thoroughbreds, but also heavy draft horses and all around farm horses. On top of that, these concept of competing domestic animals has created our original working breeds of dogs - no, not the pathetic show dogs we see today - the border collies, the german shepherds and the hounds and the terriers who once had purposes far more important than that of being just 'house pets.'

The purpose of horse racing, that of finding the best survives, however, in modern day people have abused the power of these animals through want of money. A racehorse a hundred years ago could run for far longer than a mile; four mile races were not uncommon. Today's horses cannot equal that, but of course, today's horses are also ridden before they are ready, before the baby hairs have completely fallen from their tails.

In my series, real horse racing is preserved in Rimer's Escavian society. Horses are not raced for money, but for the right to be bred and they are raced over great distances over rough terrain and over obstacles - an Escavian horse race is much like an endurance race but crossed with a steeplechase. Horses have to be not only fast, but agile, surefooted and they must have lots of stamina, because Escavia's society demands that of its saddle horses. Horse racing is deadly serious again. Escavian Animal Husbandry Laws state that an animal must not be bred unless it has been proven in sanctioned competition to prove that it can provide for the purpose that it was bred for. There's no such thing as backyard breeding in Escavia. If your animal has not been proven and if you don't have a government issued permit, you can't breed anything.

This is the way that I think society should be; it would certainly cut down on the instances of overpopulation in domestic animals and if people had to take a course about proper breeding practices (such as why inbreeding/'linebreeding' should NEVER be done) before they could breed anything, there would be less suffering in the world off our beloved animals. There is a country in Europe, (I believe Sweden,) which has already put into place a law which states that all pet companion animals must be altered to be infertile unless they are for certified breeding.

If only this law was everywhere!

Hero Dog Saves Another

Who says animals can't think and don't have compassion now? This not only shows amazing bravery, by the hero dog using his paws instead of his teeth to drag his fellow to safety, he showed great intelligence because his teeth could have hurt his fellow more. I dare call that sentience. It's certainly evidence of strategy, which only keen minds can produce. Hero pooch actually formulated a plan for helping his buddy - just like a human would!

Just because animals don't perceive their world the same way that we do doesn't meant that they are not as smart (or even smarter) than we are.

Domestic Versus Wild

There are a great many scientifically ignorant people in this world who would argue that there should not be a difference in how we treat our domestic pets versus our wild animals. These people, those who say that all animals should be in the wild, not in people's houses or in cages are unknowingly in the same herd as the people who think wild animals can be kept captive under guises of research and conservation, but such captivity has, for the most part, run its course of usefulness. While very few people in this world are truly free of the 'master race' analogy that we are taught to give ourselves - I cannot say even that I am, as I have been trained like every other human animal to follow the herd - there is something quite disturbing about anyone who says there is no difference between wild and domestic, that it is 'okay' to keep a wild animal in captivity under any circumstance. What about captive breeding, you may ask? Well, if it must be captive, let it be as far from human eyes as possible. Let it not be entertainment. Let those animals who are being bred for the survival of their kind have room to roam instead of being boxed up in a pretty temperature controlled terrarium which is supposed to look like their natural habitat.

A domestic animal is not the same as a wild one. Absolutely, positively, overwhelmingly, NOT THE SAME. Why? You may ask. They look mostly the same! They're of the same genus - a house cat is distantly related to a tiger isn't it? Well, I can't deny that. House cats are distantly related to tigers and both house cats and tigers are classed under Felidae, so they are both cats. However, just because they are both cats does not mean that they are the same animal and it especially doesn't mean that they have evolved the same strategies for survival. Several thousand years ago in Egypt, a little African Wild Cat saw opportunity in the rodent infested granaries of the Egyptians and this source of easy food was something she taught to her kittens. "Hey - the food's more plentiful over there. There's also less predators around - why don't I spend less energy by hunting over there, where those big stupid two legged beasts are?" Well, the big stupid two legged beasts weren't actually stupid and once the ancient Egyptians realized that the cats were protecting their very livelihoods by chasing the mice and their granaries, the cat became a sacred animal, protected, loved and yes, mummified, because humans are not really secretly just jumped up fancy herbivores who got a power-over-other-living-things complex somewhere down the evolutionary line, which other animals can only shake their heads at us for - proverbially of course, since they don't communicate like we do. In any case, in return for easy food and protection, cats and other domestic animals give us their services, services which we ourselves cannot - or rather could not - provide for ourselves.

The point is, 'domestic' animals - I'm talking pets, animals we do not typically eat such as cats, dogs and horses - have developed evolutionary strategies which include working for (with) us. What do we give a dog for his loyalty? He doesn't have to hunt for food. He doesn't have to worry about predators. He has protection against the weather and if he breaks a leg, we set it for him. Dogs have a good deal. So do cats and horses. What does a horse get for her draft services? She gets reliable food, medical, shelter and the thing which is most of all most important to a herbivorous animal, she gets protection from being eaten by predators. What is the most important thing for predatory animals like cats and dogs? Look at leopards, look at lions - they sleep most of the day, so the most important thing to a predator, is the conservation of their bodily energy. In modern times a cat doesn't have to use energy searching for food and neither does a dog. These animals have clearly evolved - or rather adapted or started to evolve - with us as their evolutionary advantage and we have benefited from their services too. Our society would not have been possible without them. The only time this synergy, this symbiosis between species fail is when we, humans, abuse the sanctity of the relationship and you would have to be quite stupid to say that we have not done this, nor that we are not doing that, right now.

Wild animals, tigers, wolves, parrots, birds, dolphins, whales, bears, what have you - they have not adapted for a symbiotic relationship with humans. That is not their survival strategy - their survival strategy is the same survival strategy is the same one which they have been using for thousands of years and they reason they are still using these strategies is because they work. The shark is (perhaps arguably, since everything in science appears to be arguable) the most successful species group to have ever lived. They have been around for over five million years and during that time, their strategy for survival has not changed. Sharks today are (again arguably) using the exact same strategy for survival which their ancestors were using several billion years before anything that looked even marginally like a human ever walked the earth. These animals, who have not adapted for life with humans and who would have adapted by now if they actually wanted to, should not EVER be kept in captivity.

You might again ask why. Why? Because they are intelligent. Only people who have not had a beloved pet or whom are brainwashed by institutions - our entire society can be called an institution - are stupid enough to question the intelligence of other species. It is rare that you find a human who has worked extensively with animals from another species who would tell you that that animal is stupid, if he or she has worked with that animal at least somewhat on that animal's own terms and not with unnatural predatory intentions of gain such as profit. Zoos and marine parks can be pooled in the same file as the ghastly gladiator exhibitions of Ancient Rome because they are all for the most part just a glorified show made up for entertainment value. Many people who run zoos, would agree with this and I salute those such venues such as the Cincinnati Zoo who actually do put their money into true conservation of the wild animals they feature as well as places such as Big Cat Rescue which rescues captive large cats from domestic confinement, places where these animals simply do not belong. You may point out that the animals at Big Cat Rescue are still in confinement there, if you are familiar with the program, but there is a difference - Big Cat Rescue is working hard to end put an end to the captivity of large cats and further, they are trying to conserve wild populations of these animals.

Ancient crowds thought it was amusing watching men fight to the death against each other and ferocious beasts. This, our society calls barbaric, yet this same society of ours calls it okay to capture wild animals from their habitats and put them into captivity. There is a wrongness to any wild animal being in captivity, even one which is captive bred, for a captive bred animal is like an Aboriginal child being denied their heritage. They are in confinement. They may want to escape but they cannot and it would cost them too much energy to try. Life is about preserving and keeping biological energy and creating new life. No matter how pretty a cage is, it's still a cage, to the point where I think of my own indoor cat Copernicus and find my captivity of him - as well as the captivity of hundreds of other cats as perhaps being fairly wrong. I don't mean him running in the wild. I mean that it maybe and probably is wrong that he has no opportunity to roam, to come and go as he pleases. If a domestic animal is unhappy with their situation, they will run away, but we are possessive animals. We love them, we hold them, but is it right, to keep them inside, to make them see the same walls, day after day? If trapped in a room for months, a human goes insane. If trapped in a pool for years, so does an orca or any other cetacean.

Copernicus is not a wild animal. He is domestic and his evolutionary strategy is to live beside me. He has proven himself to be extremely loyal over these past weeks and he has proven that he loves me. I don't want my cat to be hit by a car or eaten by a coyote, yet these same dangers are ones which I face regularly in my own life, as a human. As a human in our modern age, living in North America, I can almost definitely say that I fear no predator more than my own kind. Bears will not come in the night to force me. Tigers do not kill for fun - they kill for food or territory (resources needed to sustain personal life) or to get rid of competition, which really, are exactly the same reasons why humans kill, only we call it war, which we say we detest, yet usually still ends up being all fine and dandy. No matter what side you are in a war, somebody from that side will call themselves 'right' or 'better' so isn't it wrong that we critisize animals for doing exactly the same thing?

I'm getting off topic, but the essence of this all comes down to this: domestic animals are not wild animals. If I ever have a place where it is mostly safe to let Copernicus outside, I may let him, definitely if he has a streetwise companion to help him learn. It is a proven fact that cats teach each other - mothers train their babies how to hunt. Leopards do this and so do house cats. So too, do mother dogs teach their babies if given a chance and mother horses teach their foals how to run, as well as what plants are good to eat as well as which are not. Wild mustangs have been known to self medicate themselves with herbs and to avoid certain obstacles which have proven to cause harm, from dead fall to high ridges during storms when lightning might strike.

Before any reader gets too hyped up with self importance about any of these domestic species 'needing' us, remember this; any animal, including humans, can and will go wild again if forced to. We ourselves are domesticated, but if push comes to shove, we are just another herbivore who can survive in the wild perfectly fine without any modern aid or help.

I'll get to the herbivore thing soon, maybe in my next post. Thank you for reading.


For a change, here's some documentaries and articles I strongly recommend regarding the captivity of wild animals, because I'm not sure how credible most people find some crazy, opinionated little Canadian with no bachelor's degree in anything.

1. Lolita: Slave to Entertainment
2. The Killer in the Pool (article) by Tim Zimmermann
3.The Cove (you can watch it here)

For the record, if anyone strongly agrees with any of my posts regarding conservation or animal rights - such as this one, feel free to repost so long as proper credit is given to me and the repost is linked to the original post here. (However, reposting any of the other works, particularly the works of fiction - as in, manuscript excerpts - or blog posts as my personal life as a whole - are NOT allowed under any circumstances. Links are okay, but NO reposts and it would be better if you asked me first before reposting ANYTHING. Thank you!)

Some Gratification...

Today, watching an episode of Monster Quest concerning the hybridization of humans and chimpanzees, I got some gratification on my theory that we can't judge intelligence by how we humans see it. A scientist on the show commented that things which we think are smart, like being able to play the piano, would be meaningless in the middle of a place like a congo, while the intelligence of an animal such as a chimp would mean a lot there. It's good to know that I'm not the only person who questions our selfish assumption that we are the 'smartest' animals on Earth or that we are 'above' all other animals. This thought is sick and I would like to see it ended someday so that perhaps maybe we can move forwards in a way that supports all life on Earth, with respect.

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!