What do we do when our compassion doesn't have the results we might have intended?
STAFFORDSVILLE, Ky. - The bidding for the black pony started at $500, then took a nosedive. There were no takers at $300, $200, even $100. With a high bid of just $75, the auctioneer gave the seller the choice of taking the animal off the auction block. But the seller said no.
"I can't feed a horse," the man said. "I can't even feed myself."
Kentucky, the horse capital of the world, famous for its sleek thoroughbreds, is being overrun with thousands of horses no one wants — some of them perfectly healthy, but many of them starving, broken-down nags. Other parts of the country are overwhelmed, too.
The reason: growing opposition in the U.S. to the slaughter of horses for human consumption overseas.
Read the whole thing, if you can stand it; it's heartbreaking. Or maybe it just strikes me that way because I grew up there. But we do the same thing here. People protest at deer kills at the state parks, even when the alternative seems to be herds of starving deer.
