Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

It is considered "haram"  or forbidden to eat horse or donkey meat in 
most of the Arab world...anyone surprised?  And we have a large 
population of working equids, so an unwanted riding horse can find a 
job....BUT, if we are poor enough to have to actually use horsepower 
instead of just talking about it, then you have to consider the 
economics of the guys who have horses pulling their carts and wagons. 
Everyone who's come to Egypt has horror stories of the poor cart horses 
and donkeys here, and they are the same horror stories that inspired 
Black Beauty, so they aren't just a "foreign" thing.  I've seen horses 
working with ringbone that would have them put down anywhere else, and 
scrawny, dirty, hungry donkeys and horses hauling loads that look way 
too big.  But if you look at the guy with them, he doesn't look much 
better, and you can bet his kids don't.

I love horses, and dogs, and cats, and birds, and fish....and there are 
lots of them out there in nasty shape.  Same thing goes for humans.  
Sadly, the world really isn't that nice a place when you get right down 
to it.  It's really hard to make those blanket statements that "X must 
not be allowed because it's inhumane" because so often "not-X" is just 
as inhumane if not more so.  The best you can do is to make each of 
your personal decisions as ethical and kind as possible and help where 
you can and when it really is help.  I've spent time at the side of a 
road with a collapsed donkey getting a swallow of water with baby 
electrolytes in it down its throat while we waited for a truck to take 
it to Brooke.  The donkey didn't make it, but it still wanted that 
drink.

Maryanne
Cairo, Egypt


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