Animals in Entertainment
June 6: Rally in Defense of Horses Used, Abused, and Killed
Published June 05, 2009 @ 09:15AM PT
Members of Horses Without Carriages International are hosting rallies in numerous cities tomorrow in a second international protest against the cruel horse-drawn carriage industry.
Cities that may be participating with rallies this weekend include the following (check the Web site and links for more info; it's not clear that all are hosting protests or are hosting them on this particular day):
- U.S.: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New York, Philadelphia, St. Augustine
- Canada: Montreal, Victoria
- Europe: Belgrade, Dublin, Florence, Rome, Vienna
- Middle East: Tel Aviv
See also this earlier post: "End the Carriage-Horse Industry--and Bring on the Model Ts." And check out the documentary Blinders.
"Pet" Mountain Lion Killed for Walking Out Her Open Cage Door
Published June 04, 2009 @ 02:19PM PT
A couple weeks ago, someone at the Kansas zoo left her cage door open. So naturally, but apparently timidly, she walked out of it.
The lion traced the fence to the edge of the zoo's timber wolf exhibit, became frightened, and ran back toward the grizzly bears. Eventually she crouched in some bushes next to the bobcat exhibit.
Cargill said the cat was never more than 150 feet from her own enclosure. (AP)
But she was nevertheless shot and killed--not tranquilized, but killed. One Kansas news station explains,
Greyhounds: Remembering Their History While Working to Change Their Future
Published May 27, 2009 @ 01:57PM PT
I have a greyhound friend. Her name is Ella, and she is 9 years old. She was adopted at 2 years old, neurotic and in desperate need of love and one-on-one attention, after being rescued from the racing industry. A couple years ago, I used the numbers tattooed inside her ears in an attempt to track down her history and some of her littermates. In the little time I was able to spend searching, I ended up finding not much beyond a couple names and proof that some siblings had raced here and there; the name of one of her parents--I can't even remember which one now; and the name of one sibling's "owner"--about whom I could find nothing.
If I'd had the time and resources to do more digging, perhaps I would have found more; perhaps I would have found some surviving siblings even. But perhaps not. Perhaps the trail would have gone cold. Or perhaps I would have found that all were dead, given how very many greyhounds are killed every year for not being fast enough.
The Suffering of the Wealthy--and Oh Yeah, Horses--in "Sport"
Published April 29, 2009 @ 06:11AM PT
There's a blog post over at Vanity Fair that's really testing my gag reflex. It could have had nothing to do with horses, and I still would have rolled my eyes because of the focus on the "sensitivities" of the insulated wealthy. Did you know that when all those polo horses died a couple weeks ago, it was an even more horrid experience for the people involved because they were filthy rich? Rich people just aren't prepared for these sorts of surprises and tragedies! How much can we expect their sheltered ranks to handle? Yes, cue the eye rolls. Poor effing rich people who had to witness the deaths of the animals to whom they'd affixed price tags and whom they were preparing to expose to risk of serious injury for their amusement. The blogger explains,
Horse accidents are always upsetting, but especially when they shatter the sense of imperviousness and insulation of high society.
Not especially when the accidents were preventable, not especially when the horses suffer, not especially when the horses' last moments were filled with great fear--just especially when they rattle rich people. You can understand my inclination to gag, yes? But it doesn't stop there.
Tragedy and Worth: The Polo Horses
Published April 21, 2009 @ 09:50AM PT
I originally learned about the then 14--and now 21--dead polo horses from a CNN article on Sunday night, thanks to a Twitter alert from Ryan of Veg Blog.
I don't doubt that the grief that spectators and participants expressed was very real, and this was indeed a tragedy, but let's also remember that despite these particular deaths apparently being a result of some sort of poisoning, polo and other sports/events that exploit horses put them in danger inherently--inherently and unnecessarily.
And let's also lay off focusing on how much the horses were "worth," shall we? I've since seen three other articles that barely finished covering the basic facts of the deaths before launching into remarks about how the horses were "worth an average of $100,000 each" or "valued at up to $200,000" or "In all . . . worth more than $2 million." That's right--in life and in their death, we think of these animals as property, and one of our greatest concerns when their lives end suddenly or are in danger is how much they're "worth." Would the deaths of these 21 animals have been any less sad if their sale price was less? Would their suffering and fear in those final moments have been any less real? No.
AP Photo/Brandon Cruse
Dead Animal Lamps: Add This to the List of the Offensive and Tasteless
Published April 10, 2009 @ 06:37AM PT
From TreeHugger today (commentary to follow the extract, after the jump):
Taxidermy, the Victorian art and tradition of stuffing animals, is becoming fashionable again. Only this time round with young artists who see it as an ethical design choice. If the animal is already dead, why not preserve it in a new and cutting edge way.
Alex Randall has made chandeliers from pigeons in flight and lights with squirrels climbing the wall. She uses dead animals that have been shot as vermin and left to die which she sources from British farmers. As she says "What I love is the character already installed in objects. They hold a memory of their own."
Horses Are Dying Across the Pond This Week
Published April 03, 2009 @ 12:35PM PT
Horse racing season is here. And Animal Aid has been documenting it in the UK. Because I'm behind in my Google Reader reading, I failed to realize until this afternoon that this past week was leading up to the Grand National and is therefore Animal Aid's Horse Racing Awareness Week. According to a post on this year's awareness week, "this is to highlight the cruelty of this race in particular, as well as the more widespread exploitation of horses by the racing industry."
Regarding this particular event, Animal Aid explains,
The Grand National is the main race of a three-day meeting at Aintree that killed 30 horses between 1998 and 2008. It is a deliberately punishing and hazardous event: longer than any other (four and a half miles) and presenting 30 uniquely high and challenging obstacles. It features perilous drops, ditches and sharp turns. Forty horses usually take part. Only one-third are likely to finish.
Already, with the event not even finished yet, four horses have died. See "The 'Best' and the 'Worst' Killed at Aintree" and "Aintree 2009 Claims Its First Victim" for more.
Animal Aid's Race Horse Death Watch Web site is heartbreaking and infuriating. Explanation of the site:
Animal Aid's Race Horse Death Watch was launched during the 2007 Cheltenham Festival. Its purpose is to expose and record every on-course Thoroughbred fatality in Britain.
The horse racing authorities have resolutely failed to put horse death information into the public domain, preferring to dismiss equine fatalities as ‘accidental’ and ‘unexplained’. Even when several horses die at a single meeting, the term ‘statistical blip’ is often deployed.
Animal Aid has produced a series of revealing reports over the last seven years exposing the welfare problems associated with Thoroughbred breeding, racing, training and disposal of commercially ‘unproductive’ horses. Our research indicates that around 420 horses are raced to death every year. About 38 per cent die on racecourses, while the others are destroyed as a result of training injuries, or are killed because they are no longer commercially viable.
