I try to look at situations from both sides and consider the motives behind activities that I don’t understand or like. Maybe there’s a family history behind someone being a hunter. Perhaps there’s a hormonal component or stress behind someone lashing out at a horse in a moment of anger.
But I am at a complete loss for what goes through the minds of people who enjoy horse tripping.
It takes a cold, unfeeling heart to be a fan of this sport.
Horse tripping has been in the news lately because the Oregon House Judiciary Committee held a hearing May 8, 2013, to consider a ban on the practice. The Oregon Senate has already voted to ban it.
Horse tripping has also been in the news because an animal-rights activist was arrested May 18 after refusing to quit videotaping an Eastern Oregon rodeo that included this activity. The local sheriff said the rodeo was on private ground and could refuse to allow the taping, according to The Associated Press.
As the old saying goes: If you don’t want to see it on the front page of “The New York Times,” you shouldn’t be doing it. Maybe rodeo officials should reconsider which behavior is more problematic: the activist’s or its own.
According to horsefund.org, horse tripping has been banned in California, Florida, Illinois, Maine, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska. That leaves a lot of states where it is still legal.
By one account, those opposed to the Oregon ban who spoke at the legislative hearing on May 8 included two veterinarians.
How would those vets feel if they were chased or spurred with an electric prod to bolt from a chute at a dead run and then, as they were fleeing, someone roped their feet and pulled them out from under them? They would likely break something, as horses often do, and I’m guessing they would follow that up with a lawsuit.
Unless they are willing to be tripped themselves, they should not be endorsing this activity.
In fact, given that the veterinarian oath is “do no harm,” I fail to see how a vet can stand by this abuse at all.
There should be no debate, no need for a legislative session to consider a ban.
This topic should be closed.
Horse tripping must come to an end.