A Brief Newsround - Week Ending 30/05/21

The past week brought good news and bad news, joyous arrivals and sad departures. 

Calico, fighting several diseases as an inpatient at the vets, finally couldn't fight anymore. She died as she'd come to us when Ilia, our Roma helper, found her struggling to breathe on a rubbish dump. She was a frail wheezing bundle of delicate bones in his arms then and I carried a similarly fragile bundle to the vets on her last journey. But between those painful moments she had several years of reasonably good health and contentment at LIFE. That's what I must remember when I think of her.

Kirichko, an inpatient for months in equine hospital for corrective surgery on his knock-knees, has been back with us for over a week now. He's not fully mended, as we'd hoped, but one leg is a lot straighter than it was and he's taller and stronger than the wonky-legged baby we sent away.

We can tell he's experienced some pain as he's less ready for cuddles now and more ready to kick out at anything he objects to, just like the young colt he is. So far he's only allowed his old Baba Lucy to tackle his matted hair and lead him from his night shelter to where he spends the day, close to other horses but not where he could be knocked about by one. A specialist equine vet who's particularly knowledgeable about bone structure and growth will visit him when we have his X-rays from the hospital. We're worried about leaving him as he is.

Kirichko

With Ilia

Good news is that Bernie calf is thriving at his new home with by now veteran LIFE volunteer, Suze Crane. Here he is enjoying a salt lick she bought for him. He's been enjoying decimating her roses, too! We don't hear much about how bovines can form warm relationships with humans just as horses can. Maybe that's because we're cultured to meet them mostly in burger form.

Time and again I'm struck by the lack of empathy I see in people we encourage to treat their horses better here. This apparent gaping hole in feeling compares somewhat shockingly with sensitive attitudes we find in "Western" cultures where dogs are pets, generally, not just alarm systems and horses are noble and beautiful, not alternatives to tractors, and with the bonus of being edible when they're no longer road -worthy.

Why cant the man who harnesses a foal for work see it's just a baby? Why can't he see what we see in it's posture and eyes - dejection bordering on despair? Why doesn't he understand he's going to stunt its growth and shorten its life by making it pull a cart so young? Why is he blind to what we can see so clearly? 

LIFE's task is to find out how we can make such men see. Shouting and waving arms doesn't work. The horse's owner has to earn a living and he has his own logic. The foal is meek. It pulls the cart satisfactorily, listening to commands, so what's the problem? 

To  "us" it's glaringly obvious: he's distorting the body of an infant horse by forcing its still growing frame into cart shafts.  It's child slave labour. It's WRONG!  But to be able to earn, for this foal's owner, is a necessity and that's what horses are for, in his culture and his immediate experience. That's what he knows in his bones. To him,  it's RIGHT! 

Can empathy be taught? I'm not convinced of that. But I do know that when we show people here horses we've rescued from such child labour and allowed to grow, owners of misshapen teenage horses are often not just impressed by their size and build but astonished. Is that really the same Boshko you took from me? Yes it is. Look closely. They look closely. It is. And they laugh when we laugh when they ask to have him back. Because where we see a healed and happy horse, they see a horse with massively increased market value. 

Boshko before & after

We'd rather make the blind see but if we cant do that we will have to try a different approach,  a more brutal one which could end in such abused foals being put to sleep. Because that's often what happens when the authorities are called to investigate cruelty cases . A question we'd face if we chose that route would be: Which mistreated baby should we use as a sharp warning to future abusers? Which baby do we sacrifice for the unguaranteed greater good?  Meantime we will continue to praise and reward what we perceive as good treatment and shake our heads over what we see as bad, withdrawing help. Carrot and stick. 

Joy came towards the end of the week when 3 of LIFE's rescued dogs reached forever homes in the U.K. Whatever the day's been like here at the sharp end I want to punch the air when I see those canine and human expressions of delight. We've played a part in changing unhappy lives for happy ones.

Finally, great news for Yanka, previously our helper, Ilia's dog. He couldn't take her to his new family home because she disturbed the neighbours, so she's at LIFE's Haven until she travels to a fabulous new home she was offered this past week.

Such a gorgeous girl deserves the best.

 

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Wishing you all a great week ahead,

Lucy