irRationally Raven

Thoughts.

It is well-known that I speak my mind without compunctions. It's never been like me to keep quiet. The mind is far from a rational place. The mind of Raven is no different, yet a place full of contemplation, observation, reasoning, responses, and actions waiting to be fulfilled. All manner of snark, hilarity, and finger-pointing will commence toward the things that irritate me, make me sad, rave with pleasure, and so on. A place just to get away, relax, and to get it all down. For the record: your opinion here means nothing. Feel free to share it, but don't expect it will change my manner of thinking. Nothing in this world has yet to convince me otherwise. Though I expect you'll get a lot of laughs along the way. For the simple-minded: Animal and other related snark, nasty commentary, and opinionated blogging to follow. There is much in the world that needs changing.

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Going Against Nature.

So here I am again. I got into a nice argument with the admin of a vegan page on FaceBook that I used to really like when they posted and endorsed vegan dog and cat food. This is one of the things that makes most people hate vegans, and in this case, I can't say I blame them.

I've always been against forcing meat-eating pets into vegans. There's nothing right at all about it. I am veg myself but I would never ever try and make my meat-eating pets into vegans. There are several reasons why I see that as both wrong and cruel to the animal.

First of all, time, nature, and breeding evolved our meat-eating pets to be that way. Dogs were bred down from carnivorous wolves. Cats were bred down from carnivorous panthers. Ferrets were bred down from carnivorous weasels. All of the them are structurally and anatomically designed to ingest and digest meat. They need it to be healthy.

People who say "Well dogs are omnivores!" make me sick. Yes they are omnivorous, but they elect to eat meat, not lettuce.  My favorite thing to tell me people when they give me this stupid argument is this: "Take a puppy, raise it on your vegan food or vegan kibble for it's whole life, now at say twelve years old turn the dog loose as if making it a stray, I guarantee that dog is going to scavenge every single time for meat and not salad." No dog, cat, or ferret is ever going to willingly be vegan be choice.

That leads me to reason number two why trying to 'veganize' animals pisses me off. Vegans are all about animals having their rights and choices. When you force a meat-eating animal to be a vegan you're taking away it's rights and it's choice to eat what nature intended it to eat. It's force. Forcing your human diet onto an animal that, if given it's own way, would never ever choose to eat. It's no different than forcing a tiger to balance on a ball with a whip or a dolphin to jump through flaming hoops. Either way it's still force. They force tricks, vegans are forcing their diet. Same exact thing. That's exactly the NON-vegan non-compassionate thing to do.

You wouldn't force feed lettuce to an owl, or a lion, or a falcon... so why dogs, cats, and ferrets? It's because for a lot of vegans their thought process is the only right thought process. The whole 'I am cruelty free so my animals must be exactly as I am'.  It's a control thing. Here's a newsflash for those people: Your animals don't give a shit about cruelty free, vegan, or what you think. They go by instinct and what nature and evolution created them to be, which is creatures that, in a human-less world would would catch and kill, to eat meat. They want to eat meat because that's how evolution made them, regardless of your vegan mindset.

It's basically the same as saying naturally vegetarian animals such as cows, goats, horses, and gerbils should be fed meat... It's stupid and it's inhumane.

If you are a vegan and you must have a vegan animal than do not get a dog, cat, or ferret. Don't try and change nature's creation to follow your lifestyle choices. Get a parrot, or a gerbil, or a goat, or a rabbit or guinea pig. Get a pet that is already vegan and lives that way by choice and stop trying to change the way nature intended things to be.

Sunday, May 25, 2014

2014 Race Horse Death Toll (Thus far)

They are all the same. They all have 2 things in common:

A. They are all racing horses.
B. They are all dead.

Every single one of them dead as a direct result of racing. Some are flat track racers, some are jumps racers, some are sprinters, some are harness racers. All the same. All dead  well under their prime. Many under age ten, most under age 5.

What's worse is these are just the ones that are confirmed dead, this does not take into account or list those that had pulmonary bleeding, were injured and vanned off, or those that had some kind of distress or fell and were vanned off while still alive. Many of them were most likely later killed as a result of their injuries but their status is unknown. This also doesn't account for all of the ones that 'weren't fast enough' or were 'excess of the industry' and ended up in the slaughterhouse.

The names of those killed so far just in the 2014 year as of today, May 24th, 2014:

Carrybridge, Kieltys Folly, Kellys Eye, Maakirr, Tharaya, Equitania, Hanovarien Baron, Whos Emma, Shadow Cruise, Coverholder, Investment Expert, Adeupas D Ycy, Lukey Luke, Turnbuckle, Drinkuptrig, Storey Hill, West End Classic, Silver Wren, Cootehill, Low Gales, Voltchesko, Ancient Times, Our Conor, Sud Pacifique, Stack the Deck, Akdam, Raya Star, The Cockney Mackem, Cloverhill Lad, Bocamix, Uppertown Cave, Ask the Boss, Red Art, Sammyman, Devils Paintbrush, True To Form, Webberys Dream, Tigris, Midnight Choice, Muckey Molly, Waddingstown, Highfields Dancer, Rasheed, Dickie Henderhoop, Teeton Blackvelvet, Waving, Little Louie, Connonmill, Mr Lennygreengrass, Robbers Roost, Well Related, Red Rocco, Majorca King, Norse of Course, Hudson Gunner, Homer Run, Cunning Act, The Potting Shed, Present Potential, Forest Walker, Head Rush, Eastbury, Frankie Fourfeet,  Kenny Powers, Jasper Massini, Cap Elorn, Artful Lady, Bert the Alert, Nedzers Return, Elain Albrean, Ma Chara, Dancing Freddy, The Grey Mouse, Captain Cutter, Lastoftheleaders, Silver Friend, Whymott, Scholastica, Sea Smeke,  Immediate Response, Logical Approach, Mini Budget, Galileo Rock, Thunderball, Grange, Caia Electronia, Six Drivers, Share the Dosh, Goodfella, Azamour, Chelokee, Chriselliam, Dehere, Little Bridge, Moni Maker, Mr Tiz, My Flag, Show Dancer, Safely Kept, Saint Nicholas Abbey, Sunshine Forever, Wando, Rhythm of the Moon, Oriental Silk, Caillech Quest, Aztec Secret, Gameboy Luke, Caverna, Rock Elle Ten, Handstand, Polar Pal, Granny Calling, Canadian Winner, Marcelino Springs, Cuban Devil, Here Comes DrZ, Sicards Sensation, Caseys On Call, Ivebeensaved, Crystallo Mountaineer, Finesse, Garden Tavern, Sweetly Put, Vagabond Shoes, With A Miracle, Tawdry, Fardan, Broadway Peyton, Aggressive Prize, The Program, Miss Da Sunrise, Giant Indian, Hes Not Too Shabby, Miss Palatine, Chica de la Noche, Code of Conduct, Minotaur, Final Vindication, Home at Six, Manito, Sugar Mama, Fast Stack, Kentucky Hannah, Dinas Touch, Mystery Taste, The Mikester, Blonde For Ever, Casey Lynn, Battle Silk, Uncle Smoke Side Street, Very Very Grateful, Lucky For You, KZ Too, Summa Cum Boom, See The Music, Definite Elegance, Shooting Times, Mr Lemontree, Cap Elorn, Kenny Powers, Nightfall, Never Tell Lynda, Delegation, Boston Chief, Onebaddancer, Alondra Sky, La Jolla Cove, Aussi Austin, Hotradomus, American Iron, Recovered, I am Snippity, Mars, Midnight Choice, Shays River, Concept, Cellophane, Ruby Jo, Onlyforyou, Very Elusive, Zip It Jennie, Byerly Barb, Pay Tribute, Scottie C, Captain Sonadar, Recall Dynafor, Budding Affair, Charlie Company, Tizardo, Soul Searcher, Mad Loot, Good Fella, Elms...

192 race horses, confirmed dead, since the start of 2014.

Horse racing is NOT safe, it's NOT sane. It's cruel and it kills horses. These animals are literally raced to death, all for the almighty dollar. They are treated like objects, not as living, breathing creatures. They are merely commodities. The atrocities need to stop! Racing needs to stop! There is NO way to do it safely, humanely, or in any way where the HORSES benefit. The facts are there. Look them up. Horse racing kills horses and line their owners' pockets. Don't support the cruelty.

Racing to Death

Let me lay this down for you... 24 horses a week die on American/Canadian soil at the race track, that's roughly 3 per day/3 per 1,000 starts. Killed on track or on track grounds. Many of them killed right there in front of a watching crowd, after the tarps go up. This does not account for the ones that are hauled away injured and later euthanized due to injuries while running. That is far higher nowadays than the 1.6 per 1,000 starts back in 1992. More racehorses are dying these days that ever before.

In Britain the death-rate is higher due to jumps racing, while it's still higher in Japan simply because of the number of animals running and track conditions.

A 2005 study by the United States Department of Agriculture found that performance injuries are the second leading cause of death in horses, second only to old age, and beating out colic by a landslide.

The reasons for so many catastrophic breakdowns are broken down into 3 groups: Age, Conformation, and Other.

Age: Racing colts at just 2 years old means they are often trained as yearlings. Some are even raced as long yearlings because of the global Thoroughbred birthdate in the Jockey Club being January 1st (Northern Hemisphere)/August 1st (Southern Hemisphere) for all horses registered. 87-93% of all racehorses (TB, STB, QH) will exhibit pulmonary bleeding at least once. The bones in the knees do not finish maturing until age 5, the spinal bones of the lumbo-sacral joint at age 7. Maturity overall isn't until well after 2 years of age. They are racing babies, literally, into the grave.

Conformation: Very thin streamlined legs, huge ribcages with large lungs, long pasterns, fine boned animals. The number one injuries for a race horse are injury to the sesmoid, or ankle bones, and knee injuries. When a horse’s leg hits the ground at racing speed on a straightaway, it bears a load that is three times its weight (with the exception of harness racing). When negotiating a turn, centrifugal force increases the load to between 5 and 10 times body weight. 70% of thoroughbreds develop a condition called bucked shins, which is a cannon bone injury caused by the young colt's inability to adapt to the grueling training regimen. Tendon injuries will also affect 66-70% of all racehorses. Ruptured tendons, as in a complete sever of the tendon, will happen to 3% of all racehorses.

Other: Trips, missteps, underlying issues such as heart/brain issues are also factors.

Fatal breakdowns as a result of injury are separated by percentage:

Musculoskeletal: 97%
Respiratory: 1%
Integumentary: 1%
Cardiovascular: 1%

Quarter horses are 29% more likely to suffer injuries or breakdowns than Thoroughbreds, and 64% more likely than standardbreds. This is due to the fact that Quarter horse sprinters run faster and harder for a shorter period of time.

Drugging is also rampant to get injured horses to run as if they were't. Since 2009, records show, trainers at United States tracks have been caught illegally drugging horses more than 3,800 times. In the same time period more than 7,000 horses have broken down or shown signs of injury. Since 2009 the injury rate has not only not gone down, even with all of the new 'safety' measures implemented, it has risen.

The greatest number of incidents on a single day — 23 — occurred in 2011 on the most celebrated day of racing in America, the running of the Kentucky Derby. One Derby horse fractured a leg (Archarcharch), as did a horse in the previous race at Churchill Downs. All told, seven jockeys at other tracks were thrown to the ground after their horses broke down.

New Mexico has the worst injury/death rate for both horses and riders of any state in the US while Ireland churns out more horses that die from catastrophic breakdowns and injuries than any other country.

In one 13-day stretch of racing in 2010 at Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino in New Mexico (Worst track record in the US), nine horses died racing, five were hauled away in ambulances and two jockeys were hospitalized, one in critical condition.

California researchers have noted that as much as 90% of horses that break down have previously existing injuries often masked by drugs.

35+ horses have died just at the Belmont Park track since last year's Belmont Stakes race alone.

As one Daily New York News reporter put it:
“The thoroughbred race horse is a genetic mistake. It runs too fast, its frame is too large, and its legs are far too small. As long as mankind demands that it be trained too young and run at high speeds under stressful conditions, horses will die at racetracks.”