Horse scandal shows human cruelty

Sometimes I am so appalled at my fellow countrymen’s behavior that I am ashamed to be part of the human race. I am referring specifically to the Nov. 25 article in The Herald, “California racetracks under scrutiny after horse sponge scandal.”

The headline didn’t make much sense to me so I read the article. For those of you as much in the dark as I was, when a horse is “sponged” it means that someone has forcibly stuffed fist-sized sponges up the nostrils of a horse so that the horse has trouble breathing. Since horses breathe only through their noses, this practice is designed to impair the ability of the horse significantly enough to affect the outcome of a race. It doesn’t take many brain cells to understand the why of this illegal practice and the article also spells it out – it’s all about making money.

Of course! I don’t know why I should have believed that human beings are beyond engaging in such cruel and barbaric behavior against animals when we have not stopped abusing each other. What horrifies me about this particular case and all those involving abuse of animals is that the abuser chooses a victim that cannot speak out about the crime being committed or ask for help. How sick is that?

Snohomish

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