HORSE

     One of the things that radically has changed in the last few years is the fact that people who have no idea what real life is all about decide that they know more than you.  It is not that these people have not always had the opinion that they are more intelligent than you.  It is the fact that there are enough of them now to actually force their opinions on their neighbors and get away with it.
     I have seen an entire AG industry killed by the opinions of people that have no concept of what reality is.  I am talking about the horse industry.
      The horse is a domesticated animal that has been in the past the engine of society.  It is an animal that still has fascination and affection of most people.  But the radical animal rightists have succeeded in turning livestock into pets in the minds of society.
      The horse has been a source of enjoyment, industry, and business.  Yet there are realities to the fact that value is underlined by a market.  Without market support there is no real value.  This is what the groups like PETA and the HMSA have been after for years.
      The fact that there is no viable way of handling aged, unwanted, and neglected animals has created a huge problem today.  The wild horses and burros of the west have been romanticised as a natural resource and allowed to grow to the point of damaging the public lands of the West to the point of no recovery.
       The revulsion that the horse is used by some societies as food puts the drive to change the world into the radicals fervor.  I don't really care if Europe or anyone else eats horse.  It is frankly none of my business.
       Passions for a beloved animal can take ordinary people and make them believe the rhetoric that these organizations use for their own agendas.  The victim of this big push against animal agriculture is not to 'save the horse' it is to control and eliminate the use of animals in the food supply.
      The great irony is that these "humane" groups run the largest slaughter houses in the world.  The humane destruction of dogs and cats is under the control of these groups that wish to grant animals human qualities and rights.
      A New York City restaurant recently announced that they were going to include horse on their menu.  The uproar that followed was enough to almost drive the restaurant out of business.  If I were to look at the menu and see horse on it it would not bother me in the least.  I would not eat it but that is my choice to make.  And if I would travel to countries like Mir Mar I would not eat the puppy on their menus.  I would not try to change their customs either.
      The great irony is that we have an explosion of horses, no market, farmers and ranchers driven from the business and we IMPORT horse meat to feed zoo animals.
      There is really a lot of people that need to get a life and quit trying to dictate to the rest of us.  I believe they have enough problems of their own to bother with ours.  Or is there more to the story?