----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2000 8:31
AM
Subject: RC: Horse Savaging
(CONTROVERSIAL RESPONSE)
At 09:13 PM 3/13/00 -0800, Jen wrote:
He's a real nice riding horse, put together
like a brick privvy and just about the smartest thing I've come across (too
smart).
So how nice is he? He's a gelding so
can't pass his niceness or smartness on, so he has no value there. As a
riding horse I wouldn't say "nice" is quite the same qualifier as "excellent",
"exceptional", "worth keeping him alive for", so there's not as much value
there. And as for his smartness... well, when you equate smartness with
strategies to keep oneself alive, I'm not so sure this horse is so very smart
after all.
The horse's problem could be emotional in which case
I'd say that if you have a place with double fencing, with chain link and
concertina wire, electric zappers etc. (in other words, a place that you might
be able to keep a pack of rabid wolves in, for instance) then you would have
the luxury to deal with those problems.
The horse's problem
could be medical. I guess you could have him tested for abnormal hormone
levels - the only horse I know of personally that acted like that was a young
stallion who was tested, found to have soaring levels of testosterone (I mean
WAY high) and he was put down. But what would the point be? Is he
worth the cost of hormone therapy (if there is even such a thing?) Maybe
he's got a tumor in his brain. Is he worth brain surgery?
You see where I'm going with this: The problem is that one time
you have an accident. I'd guess (not being an attorney or anything) that
if the owner is an attorney (who probably the court system would say has no
excuses), and if you are taking money for training (so you're a pro and have
no excuses), since you both live in CA you are looking at a time bomb.
I'd get rid of that time bomb in a flash.
Personally - and go
ahead, flame me all you want, Ridecampers - I may be a tree hugger but I
wouldn't hesitate to chop down a tree that was going to fall on my
house. If the tree was say that giant sequoia (what's it's name?
General Sherman? General Grant?) with incalculable value, and it's roots
were uprooting my house, well in that case I'd have to admit that that
irreplaceable tree was worth more than my replaceable house - but this horse,
even though he is a living being with intrinsic value in his soul, is a
criminal and his life is not worth more than yours, the owner's or some
innocent person who gets savaged by him.
So my solution would be to
face reality, and shoot him in the head, with a butcher standing by to make
him into dog food. From experience I can tell you this is a hard thing
to do (and hard, too, to find a butcher who will process horse meat) but it is
the RESPONSIBLE thing to do. When the safety of other people is in
question, the RESPONSIBLE thing to do is always the right thing to do.
Lif
______________________________________________________
Lif
& Paul Strand STRAND
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