Sacred Horses

Congress has decided the French and Germans should stop eating American horses. Why? Because the American horse is a sacred cow in Washington, DC.

Of course, being professional politicians they never mentioned Frenchmen or Germans or sacred cows. They just changed the language of federal meat inspection laws in a way to prohibit horse slaughter in the United States for human consumption.

Out here on the prairie we don’t eat our horses, although some of our ancestors found it necessary to do so at times, up to and including during World War II.

Generally, we don’t eat bugs, bird nests, kangaroos and snails either, but we don’t care if others do.

Our horses were a sacred cow in only one regard. You could be hanged for stealing one.

Congress has no idea what sacred means. The buffalo are sacred to the Indians, but they eat them. Many things in nature were sacred to the natives of America. That meant they had proper respect for those things. It was not a prohibition on using them.

Congress seems to have taken the Hindu view of sacred cows and applied it to the horse. They can’t eat one, but they can dump the carcass in the nearest river when it dies.

Do you think that doesn’t happen in India? Do you think something like it won’t happen here? Do you think every owner of an old sick horse will pay $200 to euthanize it? If so, you might qualify for Congress.

One of the original supporters of this measure reversed his position when he found out that it will not help horses, may move the slaughter to Canada or Mexico, or may cause thousands of old horses to suffer slow and agonizing deaths from disease. Slaughter is more humane.

But, a good set of facts has never deterred Congress from doing the politically correct thing, once it determines what that is.

I heard about an old dog like that. He got “brain lock” about every six months and would just take off. You could see it coming in his face. His eyes would glaze over and his brows would knot up. No bribe and no threat could dissuade him from his course while that look was there.

Congress has brain lock on this issue. There is no talking to them about better, wiser, more efficient, more humane alternatives. They are going to make their run.

When its over, they will find this: the federal government owns about 56,500 wild horses and burros. The herd doubles every five years. About 24,000 of those are in holding facilities and cost us $20 million a year. That can’t continue forever.

Don’t worry. Brain lock doesn’t last forever. Sooner or later the dog catcher shows up.

Source: South Dakota Office of the Secretary of The Department of Agriculture’s website (http://www.state.sd.us/doa)