Nikilene Norman, the daughter of Ken and Eli Norman,  has grown up around animals, and is confident around them. At Joshua Rockwood’s farm today, she decided to race the pigs and their piglets back and forth across the fence line, the pigs squealed with joy and rush back, and forth with Nikilene.

Watching this scene, I thought about the idea of animal abuse, and it has become almost meaningless, an awful word tossed around like confetti, quite often where it doesn’t apply.

Abuse is not an argument on Facebook or the private opinion of citizens driving around in a car. Abuse refers to the death or grievous injury of domesticated animals by cruelty or neglect. Although we hear it a lot, it is actually  uncommon. Animals in America, especially pets, are treated better than any animals in the history of the world. That is not, of course, the story your hear.

In my experience very few people acquire animals to hurt and mistreat them, even when they sometimes lack the resources or judgment to care for them properly. If you want to see abuse, go to an industrial factory farm – the animal rights people don’t seem to spend much time or money on those farms, the New York Carriage Horses are much easier targets. More than nine billion animals live on those farms, many in absolute horror.

Any single one of them would be blessed to get to Joshua’s farm,where they roam freely, eat grass and good hay, have water from tanks and fresh streams, shelter from the sun and cold.

Anyone who has been around animals – farmers, vets farriers, trainers – can spot an abused animal in a second. They are thin, often covered with sores. They are usually dirty, they slouch, are sluggish or skittish, sometimes aggressive out of fear. Their eyes are white or runny, their tails, if they have them, are down, the skulk and slink.  They are utterly transparent and recognizable. There are no abused animals on Joshua Rockwood’s farm, there were none in March, just after his arrest, when I first saw them. There have never been any.

No one has found any in the stables of the New York Carriage Horses either, and lots of people have looked. You need to be utterly ignorant of animals not to see that those horses are the luckiest horses in the world.

There were none, just hours before his arrest, according to two veterinarians who examined them.

How did we get our heads screwed on so backwards when it comes to animals and abuse?

I think it’s because  none of the people making decisions about animals know much about them any more, we have all moved away from the animals and the farms, and we only know animals as pets.

Nikilene knows animals well, she has lived with them all of her lives, her parents have always let her explore and take risks.  I remember when she first saw our donkeys, she was half the size she is now, she jumped up on her back and rode one around the barn. We were shocked, int the Boomer world, that would have been abuse.

Nikilene knows on sight that pigs love to race up and down fences, squealing and jumping and having some fun. There is nothing that animals deserve more than being known and understood.