On the last page of every Cavallo issue is the Mistgabel - the "manure fork" award. It points out something the magazine finds unethical in the horsey world. Normally it's about too-tight cavessons, rollkur, but lately it's been more diverse.
Donald Trump won the Mistgabel a while back because he specifically put a hold on TWH soring restrictions. What Cavallo did not mention, was:
On President Donald Trump’s first day in office last Friday, the White House issued a memorandum for all unpublished rules to be withdrawn and sent back to the relevant agency for review.
The horse-soring ban is one of dozens of proposed rules that have been frozen. The delay doesn’t necessarily mean the ban is dead. The Trump administration could review it and decide to move ahead.
Sometimes a new president puts a hold on new items, for review. Did he have a reason to support soring? I have no idea. To me it's bad journalism.
However I'm really far away. If I'm mistaken on this issue, please correct me. I really, really hate any action enhancing device. Even the "painless" ones on Arabians and Morgans - ugh. (I boarded a while at a saddleseat barn where the horses' hooves were kept so long they were not allowed turnout, ever, because they'd fall down if they played on such hooves.)
***
Last month Cavallo had a Mistgabel about a football game played with Shetland ponies, and apparently, adults riding them. No idea.
***
Today I got my new issue and it's about an American prosthetic-manufacturer, who makes limbs for animals who have lost legs. In particular, a mini horse whose front leg was crushed by its mother (remind me never to breed a horse, EVER).
He was proud that he helped this mini take the first step of its life, with his prosthetic limb.
I shook my head and wondered what the problem could be - perhaps because it's a mini, dog-sized, it can indeed live with only 3 real legs.
But this poor thing had issues with its 3 legs, sadly,
I don't know much more than the fact that the mini can now stand and stagger toward a bucket.
Despite the euphoria of the owners and their children, I kind of agree with my magazine, that this baby horse cannot have quality of life if it cannot even trot away when it is frightened.
If you've heard of the case, let me know.
Until then I see why Cavallo said, "The cruelty award for June 2017 goes to this man."
.JPG)
4 comments:
I normally agree with you: prosthetics are not appropriate for most animals.
But I lived nearly two years with Dex, the dachshund-in-a-wheelchair. http://bit.ly/2qlaE6o
(Full disclosure: the photo was taken when he was playing chase with another dog and she was a-a-a-almost within reach, but got cropped out of the picture for effect). I'll be damned if that dog didn't love his cart and all the freedom it meant for him.
Would I ever put a sheltie in a wheelchair? Nope. There are ... details ... that come with a partially-paralyzed dog, and those details would be excessively complicated with one of my floofs.
Do I disparage the choice to put Dex in the cart. Nope. For him, it was good.
So I reserve judgement on the mini with the fake leg until I get to see a similar situation in person.
YMMV.
I don't agree with prosthetics for horses/ponies for the most part. It seems to me that a kind and easy death is not the worst thing that can happen. I think that the worry about the stopping of the horse protection law was that it will allow for lobbying of those that benefit from torturing the horses. There is no evidence that Trump would value horse's welfare given the cuts to programs for people. Then there's this: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/wild-horses-sold-slaughter-trump-budget-plan/
So he may get the award again.
Yes, I'd heard that about Trump as well. More recently, I read he'd owned a TB that he'd renamed DJ Trump, the story wasn't by any means a positive one. Poor Mini, why do we insist on doing favors that just aren't at all?
Aarene, totally agree and I hope that mini's bedsores go away as she spends more time upright.
Teresa, Germans eat horses that were pets, I always pass quickly by that part of the supermarket, but he might still win it again if the wild horse's deaths are not easy. I've seen ads in this magazine for mobile slaughtering - they come to your house and shoot your horse and take it away, of course only if the passport says the horse is for eating. I was shocked, but the horses never suffer. Thanks for the article.
Camryn, let me know what happens please, whether the new soring law gets passed.
Post a Comment