Abortion is the murder of innocent children
This topic contains 34 replies, has 4 voices, and was last updated by 
Unseen 1 year, 3 months ago.
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An idiosyncrasy is a “peculiarity or oddity of behavior or attitude.” What makes liking meat or treating some creatures differently from others “idiosyncratic” when it is so universal? As for the horrific conditions, our own lives involve horror, especially here in America where I very likely may die a horrible death because I simply can’t afford the life saving medical treatment.
Don’t lecture me about our cruelty to animals or horrific conditions as long as you maintain your love of horse racing.
I was 18 when I first saw a racehorse break down. It was the late 1990s and I was an exercise rider galloping horses at Del Mar racetrack, the Pacific Ocean glistening in the distance. Seared into my memory is the image of a petite dark bay horse on the inside rail just by the wire in the bleached light of a southern California morning. The rider, who had escaped injury, stood tugging at the reins fighting to keep the horse still. The horse had suffered a clean break of the right front ankle and his foot dangled and swung from the bottom of his leg. He turned and staggered on the stump in panic – euthanasia would soon follow. I averted my eyes and felt instantly sick as I jogged my filly by, the siren that blares across the backside when there is an accident ringing through my head. At that time I could not have known it would be the first of many such scenes I would see over the years of my life on the track.
Decades later the deaths roll on. Seven racehorses lost their lives in the days leading up to this year’s Kentucky Derby. Four breakdowns, a broken neck in the paddock, and two yet-to-be-explained collapses paint a grim picture of horse racing in America. (Another weekend of death at the Kentucky Derby but don’t expect change)
At least eating is a necessary function. Betting on horses running far faster than is safe is not. And the corrupt sport of horse racing does far worse sometimes than simply pushing the animals too hard.
Most racing thoroughbreds, however, are treated like gold. They are expensive investments to purchase and maintain. I think the stable hands often have it tougher than the horses. I would be fine with racing appaloosas, paints and arabians. Those breeds are much less frail and subject to injury or fatal breakdowns.
We all have our blind spots, Jake. A horse would be much happier in a pasture than with a midget whipping its ass as it’s forced right up to the very limit of what its very physical structure allows. And, sadly, sometimes beyond.
So, why is there horse racing. Who needs it? Certainly not the animals.
We can’t worry about everything we could worry about or our lives would become shit. Products made in China are probably made under working conditions and duress (bordering on slavery) that we would find unacceptable. And yet, we all enjoy our cell phones without thinking about what goes on at Foxconn. In fact, any product sourced from Asia likely is made with either workers working under dreadful oppression or actual slavery.
I’ve been saying if you want to solve a problem it’s folly to concentrate on things that won’t change, and if something won’t change, it’s irrational to worry about it or feel guilt over it.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by Unseen.
Unseen, i agree that the INDUSTRY would end. However horse racing would continue on a limited basis. There is a long history of humans being attracted to races. Whether it is other humans, dogs or horses.
Not only races competitions to be wagered on with all kinds of stakes from money (of course) to if your (whatever) beats mine, I’ll (reward offered…bottle of scotch, steak dinner, whatever). So, dogfighting and cockfighting need to be rolled into the same category.
If the gambling were made illegal then it would occur privately. I am not sure horse racing will last. PETA was the impetus behind killing dog racing in USA. They are trying to do same thing with horses. HISA that i mentioned already either recently was or soon will be implemented. I am not going to look it up cuz am in between races. Fatal breakdowns occur randomly and that means at times there is an unnatural increase in the numbers. That statistic or pace will not continue with or without implementation of HISA.
Come on. They cluster around competitions where horses are overdriven so that people can make money on the competitions and speculate on race horse genetics. Are you totally blind to that fact?
Eating meat would be the easies one to eliminate but i don’t see it happening. We already have some tasty plant based meats and new ones are on way. And the lab grown meat could replace the animals permanently. That is an endeavor in its infancy but very promising.
Oh, I think horse racing (the industry) would be fairly easy to eliminate and I think that its on its way to happening.
Proponents of “lab grown” meat must not be meat lovers. It’s hard to imagine a bone-in pork chop, ribs (pork or beef), chicken wings, or porterhouse steak coming out of a “lab.” No one will be interested in celebrating their anniversary at the local fake steak restaurant.
The problem of green house gases related to meat farming needs a technological solution that eliminates or neutralizes the gas, not one that generates a weird substance resembling meat.
It’s hard to anticipate what that solution might be but it may have a lot to do with what we feed the animals. If we’re not working on such a solution in a “light speed” fashion the way we came up with a Covid vaccine, there’s little time to lose.
Of course, one approach is to work on things that are more amenable than convincing people not to like meat. The cement used in construction accounts for 7% of greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, agriculture in total, including rearing livestock, is only about 10%. There are several more amenable areas to be working on which could impact consumers far less than upending their dietary preferences, which are cultural. How and what people eat, their cuisine, is cultural just like their music and their literature.
Big changes meet big resistance. Changing the national diet is a big change affecting most people. Giving up horse racing would affect very very few.
“Come on. They cluster around competitions where horses are overdriven so that people can make money on the competitions and speculate on race horse genetics. Are you totally blind to that fact?”
Races are year round in USA. How is the period before KY derby different from any other period? There is always an incentive to win. You’d have to show statistically that catastrophic injuries/fatalaties have occurred historically at a greater rate around triple crown and breeders cup races.
Strawman. I’m not saying that injuries are somehow only related to the major events, I’m saying it’s endemic to thoroughbred horse racing in general I suppose I can exclude some of the other forms of horse racing like trotting.
“Oh, I think horse racing (the industry) would be fairly easy to eliminate and I think that its on its way to happening.”
(Ending horse racing) would add a real burden to economy. Also unlike dogracing the horse racing industry has some muscle behind it. The KY Derby it is a big and iconic event that many millions of Americans get involved. At one point in our history horse racing was second to baseball in popularity.
I love the analogy, since baseball itself is dying. Horse racing is already dying. I’m 76 and I can remember a lot more interest in it when I was young. Today, it’s barely mentioned in the news except the horse deaths and other race-related scandals.
Horses are about as relevant to most people nowadays as pterodactyls. Fifty years ago, there were TV shows you could watch that featured horses: “Mr. Ed” and “My Friend Flicka,” westerns like “Bonanza,” and “Have Gun Will Travel.” Horse-related events are now upper-crusty events for the most part and the races have to compete with golf, soccer, and what’s left of baseball for the average Joe’s attention
On the other hand, there is far more public sympathy for horses than for cattle, swine, and chickens, which are considered foodstuffs.
I don’t know why it is hard to conceive of meat from a lab being meat. Use the cells to grown an animal or animal parts sans brain. No suffering. It is beautiful. Furthermore no hormones and the type and percentage of fat is controlled. So much healthier alternative. And in terms of winning over the public it could be done notwithstanding our love affair with meat and disconnect with animal suffering.
I’m not saying it wouldn’t be meat, but many of the best kinds of meat come on bones, chicken with skin, too (which many think is the most delicious part). And eliminating real meat and poultry would inevitably drive us toward ocean fish, which are already being overfished in order to satisfy people who want a more “healthy” diet.
Growing more food plants will decrease wild habitat, kill fragile ecosystems, and throw more species into becoming endangered. Some will have to go extinct, sacrificed on the altar of eating more veggies.
More vegetable agriculture inevitably also means using more fertilizer. Let’s talk about the environmental effects of fertilizer:
Fertilizers used on land almost inevitably end up in rivers, lakes, and the ocean. The alternative is to grow in giant greenhouses and chemically clean up the water after use. Greenhouse construction and use present us with their own environmental issues many of them having to do with greenhouse gases.
Repeated use of synthetic fertilizers can lead to the degradation of soil quality and nutrient imbalances making the land unarable for long periods, requiring converting even more land to plant agriculture.
The production and use of nitrogen-based fertilizers contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Manufacturing synthetic fertilizers requires energy, often derived from fossil fuels, leading to carbon dioxide emissions. Moreover, nitrogen-based fertilizers can undergo processes like nitrification and denitrification, which release nitrous oxide—a potent greenhouse gas that itself contributes to climate change.
Humans are easily influenced. Issues which seemed so intractable to the multitudes can be and have been rewritten. For instance when i was a kid i thought our policy on marijuana was utterly stupid and i argued with peoplem educated idiots who were intransigent. Now in the USA the propaganda has died down and i smell dope all over the place and the public aint where it used to be on an easy issue.
People tried marijuana and liked it. I’ll wager that people will be far less enthusiastic about lab “meat” that doesn’t closely replicate what people are used to throwing on the grill.
Same can happen with lab grown meat. All you would have to do is get those horrifying images of shocking cruelty and miserable lives. Prove that the livestock are just like our beloved cats and dogs with their emotions, intelligence and social order. There is in essence a holocaust of nonhuman animals with big time feelings. We can remedy that right quick! Couple that with meat that tastes the same but is healthier and has additional benefit of adding land that is no longer needed for farming and ameliorating if only a little the climate issue and wullah. World opinion changed.
Where did you get this idea that we are unaware of and never think about slaughterhouses? And that if only we did, we’d start hankering for lab meat?
Here is an article about the current spate of tragic horse deaths.
https://www.wlky.com/article/churchill-downs-horse-deaths-investigation/44044173#
Here is my favorite quote: “”Everyone is committed to figuring out what’s happening. Everyone is committed to stopping it to the extent it can be stopped,” said HISA CEO Lisa Lazarus.
“To the extent it can be stopped” is a tacit admission that overdriving horses will always cause unnecessary injuries to the horses.
I also like the array of investigators: Equine veterinarians for Churchill Downs, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, and the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority… In other words, a bunch of insiders who think horse racing must be protected. It’s like the Secret Service investigating itself.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by Unseen.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by
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