11 October

The Farrier And Simon: Open House

by Jon Katz
The Farrier And Simon: Open House
The Farrier And Simon: Open House

I’ve known Ken Norman, our farrier, for a long time. He has seem me through good times and bad, he could write the true memoir of my life on my Bedlam Farms. He has cared for our donkeys for as long as I’ve had them, he was the first one called when Simon was taken off his farm, he has worked on his legs and body for several years now. He came to the farm today to celebrate the Open House, Simon’s recovery, and the publication of “Saving Simon.”

No one deserved to be at the farm today more than he does, he took some questions, talked about his early work on Simon. He will be coming back tomorrow. Ken is in pain much of the time right now, his hard physical work has left him with two knees that will be replaced a year’s end. He lives his wife fully with his wife Eli and daughter Nikolene, the Bedlam Farm Barn Fairy, they have devoted their lives to the care and rescue of horses and donkeys. He took questions from the people at the Open House and will return on Sunday to talk again about his work.

Ken is one of the people that make living here so special and worthwhile, I was honored to have him at the Open House. Ken is not one to talk much about himself, I am happy to say how much I respect and admire him.

11 October

Red Keeping John Company At The Open House

by Jon Katz
Red Keeping John Company At The Open House
Red Keeping John Company At The Open House

The Open House was sweet, touching, beautiful. I think six or seven hundred people came through the farm today from ll a.m. to 4 p.m. Red herded the sheep – he is popular, scores of people came to touch Simon and feed him carrots and apples, the poet Kate Rantilla read some of her poems, Maria sold a lot of art in the School House Studio, there was a great feeling of connection and warmth. We were very pleased to open up our farm to the people who love art, who follow our blogs, my writing and photography, our lives together. I did four herding demonstrations, we had a dozen donkey visits, two or three talks. Scott Carrino came to sing some songs, Ken Norman, our friend and farrier – one of the people who saved Simon – came to talk about his work. We will do it again tomorrow – noon to four p.m.

I’ll meet some of the visitors – especially the Creative Group At Bedlam Farm – at the Round House Cafe at 8 a.m. Lenore was run ragged by people tossing sticks, Simon just loved all of the attention. It was an affirmation of many things in many ways. I’m a bit too tired for once to write much about it a lot now. It was an amazing day.

11 October

The Carriage Horses: What Are People For?

by Jon Katz
What Are People For?
What Are People For?

The horses call to us to ask, what are people for?

In  Brooklyn,  Luis Perez was refused permission to adopt an elderly dog who had been living in a shelter for eight months because he has a full-time and part time job. He was told that he was too busy to care for old and gentle Pit Bull.  The woman in line ahead of him got a dog because she has a maid coming to the house four days a week.

In Queens, Stephen Malone he refused permission to adopt a dog because he is a New York Carriage Driver and the volunteers at the shelter told him he thus was  an abuser of animals. In Santa Monica, California, Tawni Angel, who has been offering pony rides to more than 300 children a week at the farmer’s market, lost her license to give rides to the children after a handful of animal rights demonstrators petitioned  the City Council that it is torture for ponies to give rides to children. Supporters of the pony rides brought more than three times as many signatures to the council, they were ignored.

Angel, who faces the total loss of her income, will have to find new homes for the ponies in a dangerous world for equines.

She says “the difference between my home and a family pet home is, we never outgrow the animals like a little girl may outgrow a pony…that’s what breaks my heart. I know they are safe with us!” In Belcher, New York, a county transportation worker struggles to feed his two horses, who live without shelter and adequate hay because there is nowhere to go for aid or support. “I know they are not eating enough,” he says, “but if the animal rights groups find out, they will take the horses away and they will go to auction and then slaughter. I have nowhere to go for help.” In Iowa City, a farmer struggles to feed his donkeys – they guard his sheep – and he has nowhere to turn for help.

Everywhere, there is compassion for animals, there is little for people.

In New York City, hundreds of people live in fear and uncertainty as the future of the carriage trade is suddenly in doubt because a millionaire real estate developer decided it is abuse for horses to work.The carriage drivers have been the victims of almost continuous and slanderous assault and cruel condemnation and abuse for years while the mayor who seeks to end their work and way of life refuses to even speak to them in the name of being humane to animals.

What are people for?

In recent years, the movement to rescue animals that are believed to be abused – in the midst of an ever widening and completely random and extra-legal notion of what abuse is – has become an epidemic, the prism through which we have come to view animals. Animals of all kinds are disappearing from the world of people because it seems the greater compassion we show for animals, the less we show for the human beings who wish to live with them, and who  work with them.

Countless animals suffer every week in America as the movement that calls itself a protector of animal rights claims  that people are not fit to live with animals, care for them, or deserving of help in keeping them. Everywhere – in farmer’s markets, on pony rides, in carriage horses, circuses, movie sets, agricultural schools, small farms, private homes – it is becoming too complex, controversial, expensive or complicated to own and keep and work with an animal, especially those that are not pets. Animals are disappearing everywhere, just as the carriage horses will disappear if they are banned from New York City.

The animal rights movement has lost sight of their true and original mission to protect the lives and future of animals. Animals can only survive in the new world in conjunction with people, not apart from them and their everyday lives. Animals are not human children. It is not torture for a pony to give a ride to a child any more than it is abusive for a draft horse to pull a carriage through a park. Everywhere – everywhere – there are animals suffering from real abuse and neglect who are ignored and abandoned.

The reality of animals – the reality of the New York Carriage Horse controversy – is that people are increasingly being abused and mistreated everywhere, and animals are disappearing everywhere from public view and the developed world.

The very idea of abuse – redefined almost at will by ideologues and fickle politicians – is sending hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of animals to slaughter because there is nowhere for them to go, no work for them to do, fewer and people people like Tawni Angel willing or able to afford and brave the onslaught that often comes with keeping them.

It is easy enough to say that all of these animals are being abused, even easier to abuse the people who live and work and care for them. How is it morally possible to square one with the other?

And people like Tawni Angel – true animal lovers – seem increasingly helpless and resigned. There is no national movement to protect the rights of animal lovers.

But what are people for?

Is there dignity and compassion in losing one’s livelihood, in being publicly and cruelly dehumanized. Is our goal to remove animals from the lives and consciousness of human beings?  The horses are awakening us to understand that there is much work to be done, those of us who love animals have abandoned them to the awful fate of having their fates decided by people who hate people. When we dehumanize people, we dehumanize ourselves, when we dehumanize ourselves, we cannot possible build a world that is humane to animals. Compassion is not selective, we don’t get to choose who deserves it, we either offer it or we do not.

In these episodic and wrenching conflicts, we no longer seem to recall or understand what animals truly need, and we have lost sight as well of what people need and deserve.

Animals can only thrive in partnership with people, without animals people are broken and disconnected from their lives, their past and the world. We cannot be compassionate for animals as we become increasingly cruel to people.

“If you want to be happy,” says the Dalai Lama, “practice compassion.” Do we really wish for the unhappiest people in our world to decide the fate of animals?

 

 

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