The welfare of animals was on my mind today. I saw that PETA demonstrators were on the march in California protesting the presence of a Sea World float in the Rose Bowl Parade, they are unhappy with the capture and confinement of these spectacular animals in giant bathtubs for corporate profit and the amusement of tourists. I was also contacted by an animal rights group in New York asking me to sign a petition to ban the Central Park horse carriages in New York City. It seems a number of organizations  and the ASPCA in New York City are close to succeeding in their long campaign to get the horses out of Central Park for good,  the city’s new mayor supports a complete ban.

For reasons that are unclear, I got a barrage of messages this morning condemning me for euthanizing my border collie Orson (subject of the book “A Good Dog”) nearly a decade ago after he bit three people, including a small child. “I will never forgive you for Orson,” wrote one person while reviewing my new book “Second Chance Dog,” online.

I get these messages pretty regularly, there are still active websites devoted to Orson and my killing of him, it is always fascinating to me to see how many people believe they loved him more than I did. But I was not expecting a burst on New Year’s Day.

Animal rights are an emotional and bitterly divisive subject in America, I must be honest and say most animal politicians are about as persuasive and appealing to me as politicians in general. Still, the question of what is best for animais is a murky and often irrational potpourri of issues and positions, each one different from the other. Like Washington politics, there is very rarely a coherent discussion about perspective, just a rigid statement of absolute truth.

I agree with the PETA people, it seems inhumane to me to confine these spectacularly wild creatures in giant bathtubs for the pleasure of tourists to gawk at and completely misunderstand. Like many people involved with animals,  Sea World has emotionalized the Orcas, their cute fuzzy Orca dolls a chilling backdrop to several horrific and fatal attacks on trainers. Animals are not like us, they are not fur babies, not dogs or surely not killer whales.  I don’t know the biology of killer whales – whether they could adapt in their natural environments or can no longer function outside of their parks – but the use of these animals for marketing profit and temporal amusement is disturbing to me. If we’re into bans, I’d go for one banning their capture for profit.

Yet so many of these issues are not simple or clear, despite the many people who think they are. People who oppose the confinement of killer whales enthusiastically support no-kill refuges and shelters where dogs and cats are confined in crates and small areas for years, even their whole lives. Why is it cruel to confine an Orca (I believe it is) for life, but not a dog? I am also puzzled by the notion that the Central Park Horses – their work lives are intensely regulated and scrutinized – would be  better off being banned from Central Park where they are much admired and very popular.

I love seeing them there, so do many other people, many of whom would never otherwise even see a horse. Do people really believe these animals will be retired to comfortable live improved lives on sylvan farms? They most likely would be killed immediately, slaughtered for dog food the minute they can no longer fulfill a useful or profitable purpose.

Horses and donkeys have been puling human beings in carts for thousands of years, the vast majority under much more brutal and primitive conditions than the Central Park Horses, slated to be replaced by electric “vintage” carts. I don’t recall reading that the horses who settled the West, supported Native Americans for thousands of years, or were used on farms and for hauling goods,  were required to stop working when the temperature went above 80 degrees or got too chilly.

It seems to me we need more animals among us, not less, that is my idea of animal rights:  let’s find all of the good work we can for them and give them a role in modern life. Animals like horses – dogs, too – need to work more among humans, not less, it helps us to know and understand them, it helps perpetuate their existence. All over the world animals are being banned from our lives, they are vanishing to the detriment of all of us, there will be little rationale for preserving their existence. The Central Park horses are popular, people love to see them.

We cannot give any of these animals perfect no-kill lives – not Orson, not Shamu, not the Central Park Horses. People who mistreat Central Park Horses are subject to fines and other punishments, they are much more protected than family pets, many of whom die from behavioral problems, overfeeding and poor training. Why not ban dogs and cats because some of them are mistreated?

Sometimes these movements seem so reflexive and unthinking that I lose track of the real rationale behind them. My donkey Simon would love to pull children around Central Park in a cart, and he would be great at it. He loves to work, and I’d love for him to have work in my town so other people could see him and get to know him.

As for poor Orson, I  hope I will not ever forget the sight of blood gushing from the neck of the young boy Orson bit as he was walking innocently to the school bus stop. I did not give up on Orson, I affirmed my value for human life and perspective, I know what it is like to be scarred for life at childhood by an attack like that. I spent too many thousands of dollars trying to fix Orson rather than see how damaged he was and how dangerous he had become. I do regret that. Euthanizing Orson is a decision I have never doubted, it was the birth of my responsible and ethical self, it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

So I guess the lesson is that animal rights are personal, there is nothing like a consensus about them, no rational process for defining them, no clear sense of what is right. I  hope the Central Park horses keep their jobs. I hope the Orcas lose theirs. In our culture, victory often goes to the ones who shout the loudest and post the greatest number of tweets. While we march and post our messages on Facebook, it is the animals who are in the middle, their lives hanging in the balance. Are we worthy of deciding their fates?