Interesting letter in the NYT today:

As sponsors of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, we take issue with Christa Weil’s views on the horsemeat industry (Op-Ed, March 5). The horse slaughter industry in the United States has nothing to do with feeding hungry people and everything to do with animal cruelty. The facts are these:

¶Most horses that end up slaughtered are bought by buyers acting on behalf of slaughterhouses. Many of these horses have been stolen or were surrendered to buyers who promised to care for them but who sell them to slaughter instead.

¶The transport and subsequent slaughter of these animals is brutal. They are often crammed into trucks built for cattle and pigs and subjected to starvation, exposure and abuse. At the slaughterhouse, improper use of the stunning bolt frequently results in horses’ being shackled and dismembered while still conscious.

¶Every year, 100,000 horses are slaughtered at foreign-owned slaughterhouses in the United States to satisfy the palates of wealthy diners in Europe and Asia.

Last September, the House voted 263 to 146 to pass this legislation. Congress ran out of time before the Senate could act.

We urge our colleagues in the House and the Senate to take up the matter again and put an end to this barbaric practice.

(Senator) Mary Landrieu
(Rep.) Jan Schakowsky
(Rep.) Ed Whitfield
(Rep.) Nick Rahall
(Rep.) John Spratt

Of course, as a vegetarian my first thought is that all of these concerns apply to sheep, cattle, pigs, and any other animal that is grown and slaughtered for food. Substitute the word “cow” for horse in the letter and see how it reads.

It’s a peculiarity of Anglo-Saxon culture that the horse is a quasi-sacred animal, much as the cow is in India. Westerners may think of the notion of sacred animals as being a quaint superstition found only in foreign parts, but that’s because our own superstitions are experienced as a revulsion that is so taken for granted that it’s seen as biological rather than cultural. Because we think it’s simply “icky” to eat horses we don’t even consider that it’s inconsistent to feel this way about horses and not about other animals.

From my point of view it’s no more wrong to eat horses or to transport them in trucks designed for cattle than it is to eat cows and to transport them in trucks designed for horses — and it’s no less wrong either. Horses suffer in transport; so do cows. Horses can be improperly stunned and be conscious during dismemberment, and so can pigs. Horses can be starved in transit, and so can sheep.

If those who eat meat can allow themselves to empathize with the sufferings of horses, then it would be an interesting exercise for them to consider that the suffering of a cow, pig, or sheep is no less real than that of a horse.

I keep thinking that the point of a personal blog is to write what’s happening in your life as it happens, but what if what’s happening is so all-consuming that you don’t have time to write?

For the last week I’ve been caught up in a frenzy of activity because we heard on Feb 27 that we’re on for traveling to Ethiopia to bring our adopted daughter home. We’ll be leaving a week today, arriving on a Thursday (it’s a looooooong journey) and making a trip to the US Embassy in Addis with our daughter on the Monday, and flying back the following Sunday.

I have a ton of stuff to do at work — we’re launching a monthly meditation news podcast and I’m also about to launch a complete redesign of the Wildmind site (you can get a sneak preview here, but don’t be surprised if a few things aren’t yet working as advertised). And of course have been things to get ready in the house for the baby coming home, travel plans to make, last-minute shopping to do, etc.

It’s hard to believe that in eight days I’ll be a father! I’ve finally started reading those baby books that my wife has been so diligent in reading.