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Photo of Ivory Pal by Cheri Prill Tennessee Walking Horse Issue August 2010
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One of the first lessons I learned in life is that there is a school somewhere teaching “Excuses 101.” No one ever told me how to enroll, which is probably just as well because when I was a kid any attempt at wiggling out of wrong doings faded quickly when my mother lowered her head and gave me that deadly stare. I could throw every excuse a kid could come up with at her, but that stare continued until I admitted guilt. Fifty years later I still feel those stares.
In the equine investigations course I teach, rule number one is to never accept the first answer when the bad guy is trying to explain away the starved, neglected or abused animal. Without fail, it will always be someone else’s fault. There are little tricks of the trade we use to get people to accept responsibility for what they did, if indeed that is the goal we’re seeking. Like an alcoholic, there must be a point of self-acceptance. If we are simply wanting someone to feed and care for an animal for which they are legally responsible, we have to get them to accept the fact that blaming others just doesn’t cut it. They need to feel the guilt of their actions and try to correct their behavior. Psychologist might say the goal is to reinforce the “superego.” I’m happy with getting the “mother stare” active in their brains.
All the lying, all the excuses, all the chest pounding, foot stomping, self-righteous exclamations will never right the wrongs that were done, be they in some trash filled mud hole that someone calls a “pasture” or in the Halls of Congress where decisions were made based on the monetary donations of “concerned corporations.” If the “mother stare” can be invoked, there is a good chance the life of the animals will improve.
Getting horse owners to care for their horses is hard, but it can be done. Nine out of ten times, all it takes is a little talking. Not so much with the politicians. I’m not saying that politicians didn’t have mothers, maybe they did, but that’s not part of this story. Just like with a bad guy, somehow we have to get the politicians to feel guilt for what they have done, or not done.
(You’re probably laughing right now. I know – getting a politician to feel anything when we’re not handing him/her either power or money is just too far fetched, but hang with me for a few more minutes.)
Years ago I was in the airport in St Louis, MO, waiting for a flight to some far off adventure. A lady saw my reading material, a book about horses, of course, and introduced herself as having been a close friend of Annie Bronn Johnston, better known as “Wild Horse Annie.” Prior to 1959 horses had no protection, with ranchers and hunters having full access to slaughter all the horses they wanted. Wild Horse Annie lead a grassroots campaign, involving mostly school children, that outraged the public and ultimately got them fully engaged in the issue. Annie raised her voice and her fist until 1971 when President Nixon signed the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act into law.
Needless to say, I was mesmerized as she told me stories of Annie’s successes and defeats. For the single hour I had with her, I listened to her every word, walking with her to her gate when she had to leave.
I often heard stories about the effect the school children’s letter writing campaign had on Congress. The politicians felt the pressure and that law, when it was passed, was strong and effective. Now it’s little more than a muddled bunch of paragraphs filled with legalize that is interpreted solely by a corrupt and self-serving Bureau of Land Management.
So what would happen if that campaign would start up again? Would enough teachers ask their students to write letters? Would it be “politically correct” to do it without the expressed permission of the School Board? What about the parents who might object? “I sent my child to school to learn readin’ and writin’, not to go ranting off on some liberal idea about savin’ some stupid horse! Next thing I know you gonna’ be telling my boy to say the Pledge of Allegiance or pray or sumpin’.”
What if…..? It happened once. It inspired enough kids to do what adults couldn’t do and it gave the politicians enough guilt to ignore the money being stuffed in their pockets by the slaughter industry and pass a law that was, for a short time, actually good for the horses.
Here is your personal invitation to the Million Horse March – Children’s Letter Writing Campaign to End Horse Slaughter.
Can you imagine? A million letters?
Don’t have kids? I bet you know someone who has a kid. I bet that, if you really wanted, you could go to the local school and talk with a few teachers. Is the effort worth it?
If we don’t try, we’ll never know.
President and Head Stall Cleaner of
