DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Hope for humanity in humane hearts

link Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Connie Schultz
Plain Dealer Columnist
A great racehorse named Barbaro died recently, and most of us reacted to the news of his demise in one of two ways: grief over his untimely death or disgust over the hullabaloo.

Barbaro was a 4-year-old colt who won the Kentucky Derby last year but was injured two weeks later in the Preakness Stakes. After eight months of costly, state-of-the-art medical treatment, Barbaro's owners and his chief surgeon decided he was in too much pain to go on.

His death on Jan. 29 made front-page news everywhere, even in The New York Times, and national newscasts ran the clip of his despondent co-owner pleading that mourners pray for her fallen horse.

Some of us couldn't bring ourselves to respond with much compassion. In letters to the editor, on talk shows and in chats at the kitchen table, we wailed. As word spread about the generosity of strangers for a horse they never met, many grew downright angry. Here we go again: another example of people caring more for four-legged beasts than about their fellow human beings.

It's impossible to compare one horse's death to the suffering of millions of humans devastated by war, hunger and disease, but it's not so hard to see how we benefit as human beings whenever we summon compassion toward another living creature. Think of it as a slow, steady flame at the edge of an ice floe. Keep stoking the flame, and, bit by bit, the ice gives way. I vote for that kind of global warming.

Maybe I'm sold on this notion because I've watched the roughest of men reduced to rubble over the loss of a pet, and that's never failed to move me. Several years ago, my father was hospitalized for back surgery. I'll never forget walking into his hospital room and noticing the only framed photo at his bedside. It was a 5-by-7 studio portrait of Mickey, his beloved boxer.

My mother didn't speak to him for nearly a week.

"Let that dog take care of him, then," she growled, but I couldn't help but smile at my father's unbridled affection for that goofy canine. It was a wonderful reminder that even my burly, gruff father had that soft spot that needed tending. It's so much safer to love somebody who knows only how to love you back.

I wasn't devastated by Barbaro's death, but I wasn't unmoved, either. I've had pets all of my life, and so have my children. So many memories wrapped up in fur. Our mutt, Max, helped me see we had a chess champ on our hands when I heard my 9-year-old son explain his every move to him on the board. When my daughter was little and a regular occupant of the Time-Out Step, Max happily served out the sentence with her, licking her face as she tearfully explained that she had no idea Mommy meant it when she said we don't write on walls with Sharpies.

Max is long gone, replaced by a pug who is now nearly blind and round as a sausage. She cuddles into me on the sofa at night and synchronizes her sighs to mine. Just like that, my mind decides to stop its fretting for a while.

Barbaro was more than a household pet. He was a household name for horse lovers, and those are ardent fans, indeed. His doctor said he could tell that Barbaro was done fighting. Some scoffed, but I can't forget a local horse whisperer I met years ago. She never went public because she wasn't in the mood for the usual ridicule that follows such tales, but I never viewed horses in quite the same way after I talked to her and the horse owner she helped.

The mare had been treated for a medical condition and, by all physical signs, was healed. Still, she was not doing well, and so the owner asked this horse whisperer to pay a visit. After spending a while with the mare in the stall, the whisperer told the owner, "She misses the music."

"The music?"

"Did she used to listen to music?"

The owner gasped. The horse's stall used to be next to the office, where a radio played all day long. After her surgery, though, she moved to a different place in the barn, out of hearing range.

Within days of restoring the music, the horse improved.

Make of it what you will.

Barbaro's suffering has ended. Many people cried, and that made them just a little more human. For a while, anyway.

To reach Connie Schultz:

cschultz@plaind.com, 216-999-5087

Thanks for the story...all animals are gifts from God...even the tasty ones.

While I am sorry the horse died, and as a pet owner understand the bond one can form with their animal, this article borders on the melodramatic.

I guess there is no hope for some humans.

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it's JUST A DAMNED HORSE.

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AMEN Brother . I read that article and thought the same exact thing.

I'm so glad to could break away from your enthralling conversation about weather to once again miss the point.

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After spending a while with the mare in the stall, the whisperer told the owner, "She misses the music."

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I don't know how many times my dog said "hey dude, turn on the radio I wanna hear some tunes."

I can't help but wonder if the owners also feel tragedy at the potential loss of breeding money.

While it's sad to lose a pet, more was made about this horse than others because this horse made money.

It's not the money thing, IMO.
He suffered a catastrophic injury on national TV, and the drama played out over 9 or 10 months, which made people root for his survival.
Had his leg been shattered before the race, when he was trotting outside the stables or something, it would not have captured the public's imagination like it did.

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It's not the money thing, IMO.

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Yep, which is why his owners disgust me for keeping him alive for so long.

Barbaro didn't die this past month.....he died last May when he shattered his leg. For 8 months, he lived in pain. The humane thing to do would have been to put him down immediately.

Wrong quote it said it's NOT the money thing.

And exactly how do you think it benefited the owners financially to keep the horse alive since thoroughbreds aren't considered thorougbreds if created through artifcial insemination?

Apparently they thought he would become well enough to stud.

The owners of Barbaro did their best to keep their horse alive. But they also gave the doctors and researchers at University of Pennsylvania the chance to try to make breakthroughs on healing that type of injury so that maybe in the future horses won't automatically be put down when injured in this way. I would imagine this opportunity is very rare and they are grateful for it. Gotta try new things...

And you know what they were thinking how?

Seems to me it cost them money to try to do everything they could. Of course I don't know that either. The point is not what they did the point is that people who can allow themselves to feel something for an animal are opening their hearts more and that's always a good thing.

I cant believe in this day&age that we cannot do anything for this type of thing.

I just finished reading James Herriot's (James Alfred Wight) biography. He had a vet practice in England from the 40's through the 70's and though he saw a lot of advances there were still things he just couldn't do and they still can't. Hopefully as iam said this opportunity has brought them a step closer to finding a way.

Or did you mean help for cold hearts?

You know,when this first happenned,I felt pretty bad about it. I hated to hear that it happenned. But when is enough enough?

I mean it's been what? A couple of weeks now?

And while it is sad when creatures die,in the grand scheme of things,there is a cycle of life. Anything that lives,is surely garunteed to die. That's the simple reality of the cycle of life.

So when will this issue go away? Does every body view the passing of animals the same way? No. Does belittling how others view this help,or change anything? No. Because at this point? It's gotten overblown and out of hand. It's time to move on. If anything,at this juncture? All you're doing is.......................



JMHO

ah, the irony....

sorry pit. But you've got beating dead horses down to a science.

The difference is,the horses I beat are still alive and well. When they are finaly dead,I won't be talking about them anymore. Because I'm quite sure of the main issues I'm talking about and they haven't gone away yet.

This artcle was in yesterday's paper so therefore current.

No all people obviously don't feel the same way about animals but who is belittling whom? I posted an article saying that Barbaro's story opened some people's hearts and that any time people's hearts are opened that benefits humanity. If people aren't interested there are plenty of other topics to discuss like the weather for instance.

True enough.
I just think it's rather disproportionate to have "one thread" about the severe cold snap that's "KILLING" multiple people,yet two or three threads about one dead horse. But that's just my opinion on it.

But have it!

Yes but we don't need a new thread on the war in Iraq every week.

We KNOW you can still support troops and not support the war. Only a closed mind sees it differently.
It's cold up here too, by the way.

This article wasn't about the horse as much as it was about how feelings for animals can open people's hearts and I found it interesting. If you don't that's fine like I said there are plenty of other things to discuss.

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and most of us reacted to the news of his demise in one of two ways: grief over his untimely death or disgust over the hullabaloo.

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No, there is a third option... apathy. I respect racing enthusiasts and horse/animal lovers who had stronger emotions about it than I did... but aside from seeing some threads on here, I can't say I was all that aware of how the whole thing played out.

Sorry, but in the end.... it's a horse. I hate to see any animal suffer and die, but it's a horse.

So did you stop reading at that point?

I skimmed. Found the story about the whisperer sort of comical.

OK that explains why you still think it's about a horse.

Obviously you are very saddened about this, lama.
But I think you realize that not everyone will be as affected by it as you are... and it doesn't make them any less compassionate.

You might want to look at "who's initiating these threads". You'll find that here of late,I may respond to them,but I haven't been "starting" many of them.

In case you've not been looking closly,it's not always me initiating the topic.


And in reality,since our troops are dying there every week,you feel it isn't worthy of keeping on the front burner?

I felt sad, Lama, you know that. I feel sad anytime I hear of an animal hurt or one that has died. I've been this way since I can remember. My family always called me Julie Doolittle. And not because I did very little.

I don't care what these guys say or that they joke about it. I don't think much of how they behave and I'm glad I don't feel or behave the way they do about certain things. But, I don't care what they think about it and I don't expect them to understand how I do.

It's not that I'm saddened by the loss of the horse (though it did touch my heart) I was disturbed that some people found a need to step on other people's feelings because they didn't share them and to me that shows a lack of respect and compassion for others. Everyone may not see it that way but that's the way it felt to me and Connie Schultz seemed to say the things I was unable to articulate. I don't know why people felt the need to tell others who were touched that our feelings were invalid. I for one will take every opportunity to open my heart, trying to understand the varying reactions has been a wonderful exercise for me and I felt like sharing.

Five in a row, dawg!
Raycroft made a great stop last night against St. Louis, a diving glove save, highlight reel stuff!