Tragedy and Worth: The Polo Horses

by Stephanie Ernst · 2009-04-21 09:50:00 UTC
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I originally learned about the then 14--and now 21--dead polo horses from a CNN article on Sunday night, thanks to a Twitter alert from Ryan of Veg Blog.

I don't doubt that the grief that spectators and participants expressed was very real, and this was indeed a tragedy, but let's also remember that despite these particular deaths apparently being a result of some sort of poisoning, polo and other sports/events that exploit horses put them in danger inherently--inherently and unnecessarily.

And let's also lay off focusing on how much the horses were "worth," shall we? I've since seen three other articles that barely finished covering the basic facts of the deaths before launching into remarks about how the horses were "worth an average of $100,000 each" or "valued at up to $200,000" or "In all . . . worth more than $2 million." That's right--in life and in their death, we think of these animals as property, and one of our greatest concerns when their lives end suddenly or are in danger is how much they're "worth." Would the deaths of these 21 animals have been any less sad if their sale price was less? Would their suffering and fear in those final moments have been any less real? No.

AP Photo/Brandon Cruse

Stephanie Ernst wrote the original Animal Rights blog at Change.org until December 2009. She can now be found at Animal Rights & AntiOppression.
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