Pets vs. Livestock
Feb. 26th, 2009 08:51 amSome critters are clearly pets. Some critters are clearly livestock. Different people will draw that boundary in different places. Here is an extreme example:
quietann 's rats are pets. The rats in my barn are not even livestock, they are vermin and I actively discourage them. A less extreme example: A cow in a 300 (or 3000) cow dairy is not a pet, it is livestock, and the company will slaughter that animal when it is no longer productive. A single cow in my friend's backyard is a useful pet, they milk it and eat the calves, but when it is no longer suitable for that job they will probably keep it until disease or old age take it. However, that same single cow, to a starving family in a third world country, is NOT a pet, it is their food and livelihood, and when it can no longer supply milk and meat by breeding, they will eat it. As much as I treated my sow (female pig) like a pet, and I treat my cows like pets, they are/were not. There were some of you that were dismayed when I declared it was time to eat the sow, because she became unfit to breed, however the time and financial cost of keeping her was out of line with my personal definition of pet.
Now we have this problem with horses, here in the "land of the free" - we are not free, anymore, to take the past usefulness livestock and eat it. Before the advent of the automobile, it was an economic necessity to slaughter the horse that could no longer work. Many horses were pushed way past what we would currently call humane. Go re-read Black Beauty. While the actual events in the story may or may not be true, the sentiments certainly were. It was a very rare horse who got to retire to pasture. We are very privileged, and we call ourselves enlightened. Yet, out of sentiment, we burden ourselves with creatures who could not live without us, and we place them at our mercy. I have kept pet cats alive far longer than they should have been in 2 cases. I have kept 2 rescue horses here until they died. Both Jim and Horse were decrepit when I got them, and only lived a few years. They were acquired as pets. My mother, for a while, collected horses, and I took care of all of them until I left for college, and after that my dad (who doesn't ride) did most of the work. I feel that for any horse for which I am responsible, I should have enough of my own time and resources and motivation to properly care for. Getting a horse for Alice, would mean a horse that she would only be able to keep for the next 4 years, and then either I would have to maintain it or sell it. This horse would not be a pet. Minnie was my mother's pet, but she left no resources for the expensive care of this pet. Did I possibly set bad precedent by not giving her away or euthanizing her when my mother died? perhaps I did, however, at that point she was still sound enough to be used, and had someone riding her. But I did not pass the buck on deciding her fate then, so I this responsibility comes to me.
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Now we have this problem with horses, here in the "land of the free" - we are not free, anymore, to take the past usefulness livestock and eat it. Before the advent of the automobile, it was an economic necessity to slaughter the horse that could no longer work. Many horses were pushed way past what we would currently call humane. Go re-read Black Beauty. While the actual events in the story may or may not be true, the sentiments certainly were. It was a very rare horse who got to retire to pasture. We are very privileged, and we call ourselves enlightened. Yet, out of sentiment, we burden ourselves with creatures who could not live without us, and we place them at our mercy. I have kept pet cats alive far longer than they should have been in 2 cases. I have kept 2 rescue horses here until they died. Both Jim and Horse were decrepit when I got them, and only lived a few years. They were acquired as pets. My mother, for a while, collected horses, and I took care of all of them until I left for college, and after that my dad (who doesn't ride) did most of the work. I feel that for any horse for which I am responsible, I should have enough of my own time and resources and motivation to properly care for. Getting a horse for Alice, would mean a horse that she would only be able to keep for the next 4 years, and then either I would have to maintain it or sell it. This horse would not be a pet. Minnie was my mother's pet, but she left no resources for the expensive care of this pet. Did I possibly set bad precedent by not giving her away or euthanizing her when my mother died? perhaps I did, however, at that point she was still sound enough to be used, and had someone riding her. But I did not pass the buck on deciding her fate then, so I this responsibility comes to me.