I honestly can’t remember if I’ve blogged about this before or not, so if I have I sincerely apologize. Someone emailed this to me and I find the fact that it’s still up on a website and meant to be something funny quite disturbing.
This is featured on icanhascheezburger.com (and probably other humor based sites as well). Aside from the potential injuries to the flipped horse and the less than ideal condition the rest of them are kept in, the fact that people find this funny is disturbing. It just demonstrates that people who don’t know horses (and have no compassion for animals) shouldn’t be allowed near them. Anyone who finds this funny clearly has no idea the kind of trauma that horse likely sustained from the fall alone – not to mention what was going on that caused him to try to jump over that fence.
Hmm let’s see
- damage to front legs (broken bones, pulled muscles, damage to tendons)
-injury to shoulders
-potential for broken/fractured vertebrae
-neurological issues
The list really goes on depending on how the horse landed – whether or not it hit its head, etc.
If I remember correctly, this facility might be some sort of holding facility for slaughterhouses. I could be wrong, but it would certainly account for the nontraditional stabling. On the other hand, the horses look to be in fairly good health – well, weight at least, which certainly isn’t always the case for horses on their way to the dinner plate.
Dear non-horse people:
Horse falls down goes boom does not equal funny. Stick to people falling down – at least if they hurt themselves it’s their own stupid fault and they likely deserved it. Not so the case for this poor horse. Whatever those men were doing made him need to escape badly enough to try to jump a fence that typically kept him in one spot, didn’t you wonder why the horse would try to jump it?
Good gawd our society is fuzzy bunnied (new swear word, go with it). Seriously, it’s a concern.
27 Comments
I would say it looks like he hot prodded the horse. He reaches in there quickly and then pulls away. Can’t believe a horse would do that with just a slap. Sick people, pick on somebody your own size!
Looking closely, I agree with the cattle prod conclusion. To attempt such a desperate jump, the horse must be terrified. These horses are also certainly meat animals (not that I disagree with raising horses for food, as long as it is humane, which this is not.)
Although I used to like LOLcats, it is quite common for cruelty masquerading as cuteness on icanhascheezburger. I particularly remember a posting of a Youtube video called “Jedi kittens,” which involved kittens with their front paws taped together, with added CGI lightsabres. How cute.
NOT FUNNY.
I agree it is not funny, it is tragic. It is equally bad when cattle are treated that way. They are just as sensitive and feel pain and fear just as horses do! (Yes I am a vegan. No tortured animals on my plate). BTW, the horses in the video look like Brabants, a draft breed raised in Europe for meat. Meat is cruel no matter what animal it is from.
Are Barbants the same as Belgian Draughts? That was the breed that first came to my mind when I saw this.
I had to laugh at one of the comments on icanhazcheezburger that claimed that the horses looked like mustangs being rounded up for vaccinations or taming. Really? Are you blind? Can you not see how big and plump these horses are?
There is another view of this tape floating around out there, and the young man sticks a cattle prod through the gate and zaps the horse with it for no reason other than a laugh at the animals fear and agony. It’s not funny at all.
And what I wouldn’t have done to have the whole lot of them all.
I personally find this hilarious as does my friend who trains HITS Jumpers. Does it make us evil? No. Does it make us non-horsey? Our lives revolve around horses. Horses do some very dumb shit. So do people. The horse got up.
HorsesnPonies I strongly suspect you would do some “dumb shit” if I zapped you with a cattle prod.
“Got up” and “was fine” are very different things.
This looks to me like it is in a holding facility for a slaughterhouse and like the horse who flipped was goaded somehow into it. I don’t know how any horse person could find this situation remotely humorous. There is a big difference between an animal doing something “stupid” out of desperation in this case, and the video, for example, of the dog who sleep runs into a wall and then looks embarrassed. One is an act of fear, the other is an “oopsie” moment.
I need to cleanse that from my mind.
This is all I have: http://gawker.com/5917976/stephen-colberts-new-favorite-athlete-is-mitt-romneys-dressage-horse?comment=50266000
Disclaimer: I do dressage (though not particularly well), and I’m not rich or elitist. I still think this is pretty amusing. As dressage folk, we must be able to laugh at ourselves, right?
that. was. hilarious. now where’s my $100k hanoverian? :p
I love Stephen Colbert, and will be singing “Take me out to the horse ring” all through the Olympics. I think the funniest part of this is the number of pictures of the US Olympic Team wearing baseball hats and “Dressage is #1″ hand while holding beers that I have seen since then. If the team is getting a laugh out of it, why should anyone else be offended?!
ExACTly! And I wonder how many people who watch Colbert’s show went to their computers, looked up dressage, and were captivated. It’s a funny segment, and if it brought new fans to dressage, I’m all for it.
As for the original video Snarky posted – GAG!!!
LOL! I love that vid!
Those are indeed Brabants, most likely in France, where most draft horses are raised for their meat not to be a riding/driving horse.. So they are most likely in an area heading for slaughter.
Sad and NOT FUNNY.
and this video is disgusting. I want to take a cattle prod to that jack@$$
That is vile. I too am vegan, and cannot tolerate seeing any animal treated with such blatant disrespect and cruelty. Disturbing people like that man can go home to their families at night.
To me it looks like the horse is trying to jump the gate but didn’t get its knees high enough and it tripped. Whether or not the horse was prodded I can’t really tell that well. That’s appalling conditions to keep draft horses in, there’s barely enough room for one/
In case anyone wants the full video this came from, it’s here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2utsyEeYylY
It looks like those lovely gents are german, not french. And it does indeed look like a cattle prod was used.
I wonder where that truck is headed? /sarcasm
Actually, I thought that those were a type of whip. If you look at them closely (it’s easiest to see as the horses are being loaded into the truck) the men appear to be holding whips of dressage length with floppy bits of leather on the end.
There are AssHats in every country and culture. Waiting for the Zombie appocalypse to start cleaning house!
You have to wonder just what’s around the corner of that barn to the left of the pic. Poor horse. I’m on the fence about slaughter. Strictly raised for food without the human bond puts them in the meat animal group. I’m not vegitarian and strive for organic, humane meat when I do eat it. But this is disturbing. All I can see is cute looking horses that look like a great bare back ride. There was a whole matched driving team there!
Who remembers the video of the herd of buff horses rescued from a flood set to music? Years ago. I read later they were raised for meat.
Damn! they took it down. Oh well it’s for the Best. I was hoping to see someone call me a animal welfare troll. Although my use of multi-sylabic words may have confused them. It was just an Epic post too, Full Throttle Snark.
I saw the documentary, and yes, it is German.
As far as I can remeber it was about breeding horses and the horses shown belong to a breeder and were not shipped to slaugther.
Fortunately, the horse wasn´t injured.
PS: I just re-watched it. The farmer tells the journalist that the horses have just been wormed and had their shots and that they are now loaded in oder to get to an island (which is a natural reserve) to spend their summer.
So, the world is not always bad, these horses are NOT going to slaugther.
Ok, they could treat them better, I agree but they lead a good life, don´t worry
I was thinking, “Wow, people jump to a lot of conclusions.” The little gif is hard to see. Seeing the video in more depth, it is clear they are NOT using electric prods, but staffs/whips. Unfortunately, I’ve seen eventers and hunters hit their horses harder. Unfortunately, cattle often aren’t given as much respect as these horses were handled with.
Even in the gif, you can guess they are probably asking the horses to exit to the left, not just hitting them for fun. Had they in fact been raised strictly for meat, and not been much handled by humans, it is not unlikely that one of them might try an escape that wasn’t in their favor.
And frankly, I’ve seen horses flip and hang a leg when they weren’t even afraid or being chased, so… horses do crazy shit. Doesn’t mean people shouldn’t own them.
The problem with saying “horses shouldn’t be raised for meat” is that it doesn’t really justify any animal being raised for meat. I agree with the person above who stated that if raised without the human bond, horses raised for meat is more acceptable. Certainly school horses or work horses should not be rewarded for years of service with the knacker. But how can we argue that a horse that gets to enjoy running free with horsie friends for 4 years and then *poof* is less ok than the same for a cow? A pig? But most of us like meat. As long as their dispatch is dealt with respectfully and humanely as possible, I don’t think we have the right to judge these men.
And his plump buttocks rising slowly through the air *is* a bit bizarre. It’s the hang-time moment that makes people laugh.
The problem is that these horses could have been lesson horses or beloved pets they just didn’t have the same oppertunities as the lucy ones who have homes and loving owners. Animal raised for meat deserve the same respect as our pets.