The Bong Show

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Bong,

I get all emotional when I see animals suffer, it is the way I am. I do not have HBO and actually glad I don't after reading your post. When 8 Belles went down in Churchill Downs, my eyes swelled with liquid, I did not cry but I felt for that horse, I was visibly upset, and the TV went off big time while I sat alone with my dogs.

I have 4 dogs, 2 I rescued, best buddies on the planet. Maybe I am in the minority, but PETA does some good, too extreemist for most. Somewhere in the middle I sit, it's funny how I hate watching an animal suffer, but when a dispicable human dies I feel vindicated. Maybe for that reason I have empathy for the critters whose life is being taken by human decisions, not their own choice, never given a chance. As a nation, we like to forget where meat comes from, I do not eat veal because I know better.  Also pet responsibility is HUGE, too many uneducated and selfish people ruin it for everyone else. I like to think most of us are good pet owners and do the right thing. I also do not watch Animal Planet when they have the cops investigating abused pets, I want to reach into the TV and beat the living sh!t right out of the ah0le who neglected something that depended on his care.

Here is a link, my hero is Steve Courson. First player to publicly admit to the Steroid issue in the NFL, got black balled out of the league. He died saving the life of his black lab. I would like to think I would do the same, hopefully I never find out.

http://tribes.tribe.net/oldeschoolfootball/thread/522a754e-db81-4a47-a16e-8d7df26174fb

nybites

Stable to Table in 7 Days

Stable to Table in 7 Days

I get all emotional when I see animals suffer, it is the way I am.

I don't like it either.

I do not have HBO and actually glad I don't after reading your post.

If you ever do get it, Real Sports is an OUTSTANDING show that brings to the forefront many sports stories like this that the public would never hear otherwise.

I just posted this the other day about Eight Belles (someone asked why she couldn't be saved):

There is a reason for that.   A girl that I was very good friends in college rode in several large Equestrian events.   Her father was a animal surgeon who worked a lot with horses (and made a ridiculous amount of money per year doing so).    I asked him about this topic and his answer was essentially the same as what the article I'm providing below says.   

Just using common sense, if there was even a 1% realistic chance that they could have successfully saved Eight Belles, OF COURSE they would have done it.   Why?   Because human self-interest dictated that she was worth a fortune from her potential offspring alone.   

Ironicallly that same reasoning could have contributed to her demise.    The horse racing industry has extremely questionable breeding practices that have inbred them perhaps to a point that has crossed the line.     Both Barbaro and Eight Belles (who had essentially double the injury of Barbaro) were related to each other.    

In this year's Kentucky Derby ALL 20 horses were relatives of the great Native Dancer.    Moreover, of all thoroughbreds in the United States, 75% are relatives of Native Dancer.  

http://www.slate.com/id/2190571/

Maybe I am in the minority, but PETA does some good, too extremist for most.

I agree that these extremist groups (environmentalists, etc) are good in the sense that they keep the issues at the forefront of people's minds instead of on the backburner.   Other aspects of them, I absolutely can't stand.  

I am basically a realist about it.   Animals do need to die.  So if they do die, let's try to do it the least painful way possible.   There is no need to use crude and painful methods when better alternatives exist.    If I were a horse, I wouldn't want to be held upside down and have my throat slit, but rather receive a quick and rather painless (comparatively speaking) injection.  

If you want to watch something interesting, P&T did a show about PETA... AMAZING.    You'll never think of PETA the same way again.   They even kill animals themselves.   And that doesn't even begin to talk about the ALF...  Nor does it begin to talk about PETA sponsoring physical terrorism.... but all of that is included below... really quite disturbing:

Part 1:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMJVnTYxHVc

Part 2:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf-_wgTRgGc

Part 3:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfP8qtJLxJ0

Somewhere in the middle I sit, it's funny how I hate watching an animal suffer, but when a dispicable human dies I feel vindicated.

:)

As a nation, we like to forget where meat comes from, I do not eat veal because I know better.

They cover that in the video links above. 

:)   I agree.   I've got several rescued animals myself.   They've got it great compared to living out on the streets.    In fact, one of them is sleeping right next to me now as I am typing.  

Here is a link, my hero is Steve Courson. First player to publicly admit to the Steroid issue in the NFL, got black balled out of the league. He died saving the life of his black lab. I would like to think I would do the same, hopefully I never find out.

Thanks for the link!   I remember hearing about that on the news.   Sounds like he was a great guy.   

Thanks for the post!

Cheers!

Stable to Table in 7 Days

One of the reasons I really don't want to see the inside of a slaughter house.  I'm not a vegetarian.  I'm not surprised at this.  Alot of times it's about the money.  Putting an animal down costs money.  Giving an animal away costs money.  How we have treated our "food" has never been humane, look at what they do to calves intended to be slaughtered for veal. 

I spent a year in Korea.  I received an interesting education, dogs that roamed the street, or wondered freely were family pets.  Not so with dogs bred for the sole intention of becoming dinner.  These animals were kept locked in cages, they weren't allowed to touch the ground, no exercise.  I didn't want to see how they killed them.  I'm sure no differently then cows.

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One of the reasons I really don't want to see the inside of a slaughter house.

Ugh... as a little Bong (probably around 6-7), we were up visiting some relatives in a rural area of Canada (that being like 98% of the country...lol).    One of them worked at a slaugherhouse in which he explained to me that is where they "package meat" (while neglecting to tell me the rest).   He asked if I wanted to go along and as you can probably imagine I was quite an inquisitive child and wanted to go along.  

Decades later, I can still vividly remember that smell.  :(    You know when you are driving past a huge farm and the smell infiltrates your car and is so atrocious that you hit the "re-circulate" button as quickly as possible?   Well that was like smelling a Glade scented candle compared to what the slaughterhouse smelled like.    I literally thought I was going to vomit when we were still over a hundred yards away from the doors.   I had my shirt covering my mouth and nose and it didn't help.   My eyes were watering from the strength of the odor.  

In retrospect, part of me is glad I saw it as I got to see how it was done and it was educational, yet on the other hand I probably have permanent PTSD from it.   I've always been a meat eater, though I prefer chicken now more times than not (unless a sweet filet mignon/chateaubriand is sitting right in front of me).   I used to like fish until my parents made me it hate it by forcing me to eat it during Lent.   Now I can't go near fish (hough I do love lobster, crab and shrimp).   Interesting that Lent killed fish for me, but the slaugherhouse didn't prevent me from eating meat.... sort of amusing when you stop and think about it.    :)

Agreed.   The funny thing here though is that these horses would be worth more than $200 on the open riding market (I would guess... I don't know a ton about the market).   Horses are expensive aren't they?   Just doing a quick search now on my local CL, the first one I clicked on came up for $6K (though there were others for adoption):

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/pet/675518108.html

My big issue with this is that these people that buy these expensive thoroughbreds easily have the money to pay $60 to put them down humanely.   When someone buys a horse, it should be like their "pet" in the sense that they have some level of responsibility for its life.  

How we have treated our "food" has never been humane, look at what they do to calves intended to be slaughtered for veal.

True.  

I spent a year in Korea.  I received an interesting education, dogs that roamed the street, or wondered freely were family pets.  Not so with dogs bred for the sole intention of becoming dinner.  These animals were kept locked in cages, they weren't allowed to touch the ground, no exercise.  I didn't want to see how they killed them.  I'm sure no differently then cows.

I have several friends from the Philippines and from other Asian countries where dog is a fairly common meal.   In the end, I suppose it is just meat like anything else.    I don't have a problem with people eating dog, I just wish that they would kill the animals with the least amount of pain as possible.  

Thanks for the post!   :)

Cheers!

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Hopefully all of this shows up correctly tomorrow as the site is all whacky again tonight.   :(   

As of now, the blog doesn't even have the correct post count despite my trying to correct that by deleting and reposting which still didn't work.  

It looks OK for now though otherwise.  

Cheers...

Stable to Table in 7 Days

I don't have a problem with people eating dog, I just wish that they would kill the animals with the least amount of pain as possible.   Well given that only one state has a "death with dignity" law, is it surprising that we're less humane to animals?

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Well given that only one state has a "death with dignity" law, is it surprising that we're less humane to animals?

That's a great question as it is a prime example of two opposing perspectives being true about the same issue.    From one perspective what you say above is true.   From the opposing perspective, at least our pets CAN be put to sleep humanely in all 50 states if their owners choose to do so (unlike humans).   :)

Cheers!

Stable to Table in 7 Days

I too watched the youtube video of horses slaughtered and how cows are slaughtered.  I love hamburgers and after watching the video on how cows are slaughtered I did not eat any meat for three days.  Good news for the table to stable fans.  There is a ban on killing horses in the United States, it is called the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act.  It bans the slaughtering of horses in the United States.  I have nine horses and this is what is happening.  Horse sales in the United States are all but nonexistant.  We have Tennessee Walkers.  We have big blood lines and it has taken us 17 years to have the horses we have.  We recently (8 days ago) had a Palamino Stud Colt born.  About four years ago this horse as a baby would have been worth about $10-12,000.00 dollars.  Today I would have a difficult time selling him at all.  I know people that have given their horses away because they cannot sell them and canot afford to keep them.  I was told yesterday that a man bought a "registered" quarter horse in Fowler, Colorado at an auction for $90.00.   The problems are many.  Corn has gone way up recently due to the feds buying corn to make ethenol.  That is forcing the price of feed way up.  I am buying 50 lbs of feed for about 10.00.  The feed I used to feed my pregnant mares was about $12.00, now it is $23.00.  While I agree that slaughtering horses is rediculos the new problem is, who is going to take care of all these animals due to the fact that people cannot afford to feed and care for them.  Hay has gone way up due to many droughts in this country.  About 7 years ago, I was paying $2.00 a bale for good grass hay.  Today hay that is probably not as good, is selling for $10.00 a bale.  I don't know about you, ( that is a 400 percent increase), but I make less money than I did 7 years ago, much less making 400 percent more.   My wife and I have five dogs, (three rescued), two cats (rescued) and 9 horses.  We hoped to sell a couple of horses a year to pay for our animals.  I'm not sure where I am going with this than to say, I am against slaughterin any kind of animal cruely.  Next year we will be having another crop of babies and thats going to be it.  People will be gelding their stallions so they cannot breed the mares.  Even though slaughtering horses in the US is currently illegal, (their may still be a slaughter house in Illinois, I'm not sure), money seeking individuals are bringing animals to Mexico.  The market for horse meat is mainly in foreign countries.  We have had good beef in this country, ( at least in the past) so horse meat has not been eaten.  Here is a picture of my new Stallion, HIs name is "Starz is Talking Gold Dust" we call him Dusty.  He is nine days old today.  As long as there is blood pumping in my veins he will not ever be slaughtered.  Thank you all for letting me write this comment.  I believe it has helped me, hope someone who is thinking about adopting an animal will think about the care and feeding it takes to take care of animals.  One has to be committed.  This is where most of our money goes.  We do not have children and our animals are our children.  I wanted to attach a picture of "Dusty" but I either can't or don't know how. 

Here is a link by the Humane Society giving the current facts about horse slaughter in the United States:

http://www.hsus.org/legislation_laws/citizen_lobbyist_center/help_end_horse_slaughter.html

Stable to Table in 7 Days

I too watched the youtube video of horses slaughtered and how cows are slaughtered.  I love hamburgers and after watching the video on how cows are slaughtered I did not eat any meat for three days. 

I don't blame you... I was planning on it last night for myself and went with pasta instead.  

There is a ban on killing horses in the United States, it is called the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. 

Real Sports mentioned this as well.   They said that people then take them to Canada and Mexico instead.   However, they said that they are trying to pass a new bill banning the transportation of US horses out of the country with the intent to kill them.  

I have nine horses

Sweet!  An expert.... you are needed here!   :)

About four years ago this horse as a baby would have been worth about $10-12,000.00 dollars.  Today I would have a difficult time selling him at all.

Holy Horse Robbery Batman!    Why the huge pitfall?  It has to be more than just feed prices for such a huge change.  

I was told yesterday that a man bought a "registered" quarter horse in Fowler, Colorado at an auction for $90.00.

It's almost that much to adopt a dog or cat at the local shelter.   

While I agree that slaughtering horses is riciculous the new problem is, who is going to take care of all these animals due to the fact that people cannot afford to feed and care for them.

I am not saying that that they should all live precisely because of what you stated above.   It is unrealistic to think that we can save every single horse.    There are only so many homes to go around.   I'm for trying to find a home for them and if not, then putting them down in the most painless manner possible.  

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)   (one smiley for each of them)  

Thank you all for letting me write this comment.

Thank you for taking the time to do it.   The only way things change is by educating people to the issues.   I learned about it today so I took 10 minutes and wrote this in the hope that one more person would learn about it.   Now you have pushed it up another level.   :)

I believe it has helped me, hope someone who is thinking about adopting an animal will think about the care and feeding it takes to take care of animals.  One has to be committed. 

Especially with horses one has to be committed.   That's why it pains me to see people like yourself who care so much about them, yet wealthy people who "use" these animals to make money then just discard them without a care in the world.   If anything, those are the people who should be taking better care of the horses because they have the means to do so and it is their hobby/passion/livelihood.  

Great info!!! 

THANKS!

Cheers!   :)