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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Many Lack Good, Old Horse Sense

Jennifer James The Spokesman-Rev

Dear Jennifer: Would you consider including a few words in your column for people who buy horses and other animals and don’t know how to care for them? I’m sick and sad at all the recent articles in the paper about animal neglect and outright abuse.

A horse eats like a horse. It takes a lot of food to keep a horse healthy and calm - a hungry horse is edgy and frantic, then becomes lethargic as he slowly starves. A horse needs shelter from the weather - even a lean-to is a help.

It is cruel to put a horse out in a pasture with no shelter from the sun and other harsh conditions. Horses are pack animals and become lonely and neurotic if left alone.

Buy a stuffed horse or a poster if you don’t have the time or money to care for a real horse. Don’t forget veterinary costs and a blacksmith (farrier) to care for their feet.

Rick

Dear Rick: I have written often about the absurd separation some people maintain in their head between one species and another. They claim pain and hunger for homo sapiens, but assume other species don’t feel pain. They don’t go home to feed their dog or let him out, assuming he’ll be just fine, like a couch. They have no time during the week, but want a companion on the weekend.

For centuries, scientists claimed animals other than humans felt no pain and lacked the mind to notice isolation, the loss of young or starvation. Domestic animals fare the worst because they are trapped in houses, sheds or pastures.

I have seen otherwise compassionate people taunt and beat their pets. Physicians once believed infants did not feel pain, and they still justify circumcision and other procedures without the pain medicine an adult would demand. When I have intervened, these people do not understand what I am talking about.

I was stunned while at a university and what passed for their care of research animals. So many experiments proved nothing but sadism, or ignorance of the researcher.

Well, I’ll stop, but you are right.

How you care for an animal says more about you than almost anything else. If you are unwilling to be a good “master,” then please leave it to those who are willing to respect the lives of the creatures in their care. If you see an animal in distress, report it and insist on help. You may be the only chance that animal has.

Jennifer

Dear Jennifer: I really liked your comments about the “real” vs. the “ideal” worlds in your answer to LP’s concerns about raising her teenage daughter in a world with mixed messages for kids.

One point you didn’t touch on, however, is that kids must determine if they are an “individual” person or a “group” person, or some combination thereof. By this I mean: Do they like to do things in groups (on teams), vs. individually, or in very small parties?

A second point you only touched on, is for parents to emphasize the total lack of continuity between ANYTHING in high school and the rest of the real world after high school. Whatever appears cool/”in” or nerdy/uncool to high school kids is almost sure to be something vastly different in the real-world. High school is the most perfect “virtual UNreality” known to mankind.

Mike

Dear Mike: I have written so many columns on the mistakes we make thinking we are who our high school peers tell us we are. It’s worth it to go to high school reunions just to get a grip on reality.

Jennifer

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