Four of my favorite quotes from renowned philosophers…
“The day may come when the rest of animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. … What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason, or perhaps the faculty of discourse? But a full-grown horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as a more conversable animal, than an infant of a day or a week or even a month old. But suppose they were otherwise, what would it avail? The question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?” – Jeremy Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789)
“The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.” – Arthur Schopenhauer, On the Basis of Morality (1840)
“The animals themselves are incapable of demanding their own liberation, or of protesting against their condition with votes, demonstrations, or bombs. Human beings have the power to continue to oppress other species forever…. Will our tyranny continue, proving that we really are the selfish tyrants that the most cynical of poets and philosophers have always said we are? Or will we rise to the challenge and prove our capacity for genuine altruism by ending our ruthless exploitation of the species in our power, not because we are forced to do so by rebels or terrorists, but because we recognize that our position is morally indefensible? The way in which we answer this question depends on the way in which each one of us, individually, answers it.” – Peter Singer, Animal Liberation (1975)
“The fundamental wrong is the system that allows us to view animals as our resources, here for us – to be eaten, or surgically manipulated, or exploited for sport or money. Once we accept this view of animals – as our resources – the rest is as predictable as it is regrettable.” – Tom Regan, The Case for Animal Rights (1983)
We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth.
Henry Beston
Patrick and Nicole, the above quote hangs in my horse barn. The above quote gives credit to the phrase, “We don’t know what we don’t know”.
Thankyou Patrick, and Horseracing Wrongs, as always you bring us pure and inescapable truths
Those eyes.
The eyes of despair as I saw the other day while looking at a slaughter truck full of racehorses on their way to Quebec.
We saw the truck, we stopped at the same Tim Hortons on the 401.
As we stood about 6 feet from the truck the racehorses were nickering for their oats.
The powerful smell of the urine and manure from hours on the van with no food, water or comfort.
This load was picked up in Idaho where the racehorses are sent to a pre-determined location from California, Arizona, Texas mainly.
So much for slaughter laws as California proclaims – they just ship them out to this location and off they go.
These are the true faces of horse racing.
This is the horrific, sad truth behind this industry where racehorses are mere disposable gambling chips.
While Oaklawn Park boasted about 41 million in wagering profits on one day, at the behest of their profit slaves, they can’t even spend $200 to save them from a horrific fate.
This business has been ignoring the plight of racehorses for years and every one of them know damn well what happens to most of them after they are done filling races for them.
Not one apologist, participator, supporter and/or defender actually “cares” and loves them because you knowingly send your “family members” out to die every single day whether that’s on the track or on the slaughterhouse floor.
Shameful, disgusting parasites – every single one of them.
Yes, Animals should definitely be treated with compassion and respect.
Recently I thought about moving to Hot Springs AR to a beautiful state. However, I saw that this town supports horse racing. That changed my mind. No Hot Springs for me. No horse racing.