Eight Belles

You may have heard about Eight Belles, the second-place finisher of the Kentucky Derby, being euthanized after the race when she broke both her front ankles. PETA made several stupid comments after the race suggesting that the jockey should have known something was wrong, etc., etc. The trainer in an emotional speech then said some stupid comments about the horse putting her life on the line, etc. Various people started fighting about the fact that the horse didn't have a choice to race and couldn't know the risks, etc. The whole conversation was so frustrating, because no one was willing to talk about the real issue: what good is served when animals are domesticated and put to use by humans?

Is it wrong to race horses? If it is, is it wrong because the horse doesn't have a choice? Essentially, if you answer that second question in the affirmative, then you are opposed to all domestication. I see no possible ground for discussion with such a person.

An animal essentially is the creature of the moment: he may desire or not desire to run, to eat, to play, and so on, but whatever he does, it is in the now. The more developed an animal is, the better it's memory, and hence the more the past comes into play in the present. I think this is the essence of the perfection of an animal: the degree to which it is able to bring together past and future in the present. But no animal does this with anything like the perfection that humans do, humans who have history, and tell stories and pass down legends from generation to generation.

Domesticated animals, however, get to participate in the human story: think of Babe the Blue Ox, or Achilleus' horse. I still tell stories about my dog that died of cancer, and the whole world will remember the tragedy of Eight Belles, who died after coming in second in the greatest horse race in the world. Sure, Eight Belles knows nothing of this: but that's not the point. The point is, it's better to be part of a story, even if you don't know you are part of it.