I am a RARA

I'm distancing myself more and more from mainstream horse industry thinking. In opposition to some vegans, I DO think it's humane to ride a horse if the discipline suits his physical and mental aptitudes and if you're willing to keep him on as a retired companion when his useful life is through. However, when riders carry on about the RARA's threat to equestrian sport, I think to myself that I would GLADLY trade my right to ride, harness, breed, or otherwise use my animals if the tradeoff was a fulfillment of Radical Animal Rights Activist goals: an end to subjugation. It's not a slippery slope into restrictions on OUR freedom. It's an overdue journey towards the abolition of speciesism and slavery. Yes, there are animals that need protection more immediately than the eventers and the carriage horses. Still, if we lose eventing and urban carriage rides as part of a societal shift away from institutionalized animal abuse, it's a worthy trade.

Oh, and I say this as a huge livestock lover: to the meat eaters who argue that we protect domestic livestock breeds from extinction by milking or eating them—screw that. I'd rather see them go extinct than be brought into this world only to be murdered by their keepers. They were invented for human appetites, and they didn't ask to be born. It would be a sad thing to never again gaze upon the doe eyes of a Jersey cow, but it's sadder still to think of that cow being sent to the butcher when her overtired udder loses its tone in middle age. To think of her sons being thrown out like garbage.

In the past, I've supported the breeding of sport horses, purebred dogs, and dairy goats. I shall not support it any longer. I no longer believe in intentionally bringing animals into this world. There are too many already, and I shall hold this stance until they ALL have loving homes.