“If we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt.”  (Black Beauty by Anna Sewell)

Pam White posted a beautiful blog yesterday.  It has inspired me to look at the horse slaughter issue through the lens of the words of Chief Seattle.

This is a video of Joseph Campbell reading from Chief Seattle’s letter of 1854.  To me, this is sacred text.  And, it is no mistake that the horse is featured so clearly in the mythologizing of our land.

The ASPCA opposes horse slaughter.  PETA has adopted an odd position that decries slaughter of any kind, but approves the slaughter of horses in the U.S. as a way of keeping horses from being shipped to Canada or Mexico for their grotesque deaths.  I don’t think you can have it both ways.   Watch this video only if you have a strong stomach. 

Slaughter is never, never humane.  Euthanasia is humane.  If Congress is actually concerned about the welfare of our horses, they should make a provision for humane euthanasia by a veterinarian.  But in fact, this is another issue driven by greed and other countries’  appetites for horse meat.  And greed is never compassionate; it is crude and expeditious.

As I said yesterday, in the burgeoning storm about horses and slaughter, there is this:  horses possess an extraordinary  sensitivity.  They are defenseless.  They are companion animals, like dogs and cats.

I am weighing in on this because I spend time every day with horses.  This is not an abstract issue for me.  I write every day about how horses can help us to become better humans:  more aware, more embodied, more conscious.  It is their gift as prey animals who have played and continue to play a major role in our civilization as workers (in war, in the fields, on the streets), entertainers (the racing industry)  and partners in sport, work and life.

The pro-slaughter lobby says that the horse issue has been hijacked by emotional arguments on the part of opponents of slaughter.  And what, I ask, is wrong with emotion, with feeling?  (Do I smell an old sexist argument here?)

Here is my hope:  That millions and millions of people will see the film War Horse, and get, viscerally, something heart-opening about the horse.  I am doing what  Abraham suggests:  pivoting from something I abhor  (horse slaughter and its inevitable cruelty) to point myself toward what I want:  a shift in public consciousness and policy.

More reading:  http://www.manesandtailsorganization.org/vicki_tobin.html