Thu Nov 11, 2010 9:45 am
Pensioners...
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- Lately we've been watching Craig's List and other places, following the local market in preparation for buying some pigs and a milk cow... Couldn't help but be reminded of one of the sadder forms of irresponsible asshattery going. The "free horse to good home" thing.
- Usually, this is old horse that someone has gotten tired of looking after. So, instead of doing the right thing and putting the critter down, they try to pawn their responsibility off onto some poor sap who doesn't know what they're getting themselves into.
- Admittedly, I have a couple of retirees here. So long as the vestiges of Cornucopia allow, I'll "waste" resources providing the horses that served me long and well with care and comfort until they either pass-on or get too decrepit to enjoy their lives of leisure... It's actually kind of silly sentimentalism to provide the geezers with special diets and rugs and whatnot that the productive horses don't even need... But I suppose everyone has to have a few vices. But, if for some reason we couldn't provide for our geriatric animals properly, we'd never send them off to an uncertain future elsewhere.
- Horses are not house pets. There aren't infinite positions for "companion horses" out there. As things get tighter, the luxury of being able to afford non-useful horses is going to rapidly fade away.
- "Retirement" for horses often winds-up meaning being stuck out is some barbed-wire cattle pasture to die a slow, miserable death from parasites and malnutrition... Because someone was too "kind" to put 255g of plumbum where it should have been administered.
- And I fear it's going to be getting even worse as the economy crashes, and thanks to the "do-gooders" who've worked against horse slaughter which, despite its faults, was still at least a quicker alternative than letting ol' Dobbin get too weak to fight off the coyotes.
- And while I'm on a rant... No... I'd better not go into the subject of people trying to "re-home" old dogs who've become inconvenient... I'll wind up typing something that'll make me vote for banning myself!
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When my useful strength is gone, do not turn me out to starve or freeze, or sell me to some cruel owner, to be slowly tortured and starved to death; but do Thee, Master take my life in the kindest way and your God will reward you here and hereafter.
-from The Horse's Prayer.
-from The Horse's Prayer.
- Lately we've been watching Craig's List and other places, following the local market in preparation for buying some pigs and a milk cow... Couldn't help but be reminded of one of the sadder forms of irresponsible asshattery going. The "free horse to good home" thing.
- Usually, this is old horse that someone has gotten tired of looking after. So, instead of doing the right thing and putting the critter down, they try to pawn their responsibility off onto some poor sap who doesn't know what they're getting themselves into.
- Admittedly, I have a couple of retirees here. So long as the vestiges of Cornucopia allow, I'll "waste" resources providing the horses that served me long and well with care and comfort until they either pass-on or get too decrepit to enjoy their lives of leisure... It's actually kind of silly sentimentalism to provide the geezers with special diets and rugs and whatnot that the productive horses don't even need... But I suppose everyone has to have a few vices. But, if for some reason we couldn't provide for our geriatric animals properly, we'd never send them off to an uncertain future elsewhere.
- Horses are not house pets. There aren't infinite positions for "companion horses" out there. As things get tighter, the luxury of being able to afford non-useful horses is going to rapidly fade away.
- "Retirement" for horses often winds-up meaning being stuck out is some barbed-wire cattle pasture to die a slow, miserable death from parasites and malnutrition... Because someone was too "kind" to put 255g of plumbum where it should have been administered.
- And I fear it's going to be getting even worse as the economy crashes, and thanks to the "do-gooders" who've worked against horse slaughter which, despite its faults, was still at least a quicker alternative than letting ol' Dobbin get too weak to fight off the coyotes.
- And while I'm on a rant... No... I'd better not go into the subject of people trying to "re-home" old dogs who've become inconvenient... I'll wind up typing something that'll make me vote for banning myself!
.
I may be gettin' old, But I've been fightin' DIRTIER LONGER!
