Only in America. A horse has better health care than most Americans

[Ishoutandscream2]

First, I love horse racing and gambling. It is a hobby, albeit a non-profit activity.

I love animals, especially dogs. I feel they have a right and a purpose to be treated with respect and common descency.

But watching press conferences on Sunday about a race horse having surgery really bothered me. I know he was a threat to win the triple crown, and I will never be worth (monetarily) what this horse is. I kept thinking throughout the day how many people who have health problems in our country don't get the kind of care a horse gets. There is something twisted about this, in my opinion.

I'm sure I will be flamed for this. Some will ask "what were they supposed to do?" Well, if it was just a common, everyday horse, he probably would have been put to sleep. I just think we all should have the greatest attention to our health care needs. Especially more than a horse.

[Warpy]

1. That horse is worth a fortune in semen!

You and I are seen only as drains on the corporate bottom line.

We don't deserve care when we get sick.

[liberalpress]

22. If given a chance...

... I'm sure I could be, too.

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. But we love the horse

We love him.

Say you love him.

Join us.

Love the horse.

Love the horse.

Love the horse....

[Jim Warren]

3. Animal Farm

Follow the grain.

[rodeodance]

4. Thats the point , Barbaro is not a "common, everyday horse"---lots of $

to be made making lots of littel Barbaro's Barbara's

[KittyWampus]

5. The idea is for everyone to get better health care & not to take it from

another living being.

Oh, and when I was in a car accident, I almost lost my leg. It was saved by a talented surgeon using techniques relatively new at the time (internal rods and pins). My car insurance paid for that. Didn't cost me a dime.

[lastliberalintexas]

It's actually parallel to the care of humans

Some humans receive better care than others, and this horse received better care than other horse (and yes, many humans). Those with the money or who are more "important" get the care, while regular people and animals suffer. That actually sounds about right in our country today. :(

[Ishoutandscream2]

7. Very good point. It is an apt description of what we have here

Hey, if you're important, and got the dough, you will get the best of care. It goes not only for humans, but for horses, too.

Again, it's very sad, in my opinion.

[kestrel91316]

17. How could he have received better care than many humans do??

Don't you know we veterinarians are little better than dog groomers and pooper scoopers, and don't know ANYTHING AT ALL about medicine or surgery?

sarcasm off

I guess I've been subjected to the two-minute hate of vets a few too many times.........

[Caoimhe]

19. Thank you

Vets have to have more training than human doctors (doctors work on one species, vets work on numerous species), plus your patients cannot tell you where it hurts. Our pets veterinarian is almost like one of the family and he truly does care about us and our furbabies. Bless you for what you do!

[kestrel91316]

33. Thank you. Sometimes I need to be reminded of this. I don't hear many

thank you's on DU.

[Caoimhe]

20. dupe n/t

[CottonBear]

30. I'm not sure why you think vets are hated? No one I know hates vets.

I certainly don't see that on here DU or in my community or in the media. Maybe it's because I live in a progressive place where vets, doctors, artists, sceintists and academics are all respected. That siad, there are many kinds of veterinarinas, specialties and levels of higher education. There are some equine and small animal vets that I personally like better than others but I don't hate vets in general. I depend on my vets.

[kestrel91316]

32. There is a small but vocal group of vet haters here on DU. sorry

to say. They usually hang out in the Pats Forum.

[xchrom]

6. we live in a world where you can have both.

why disparage the horses chance at life to make a point that poor and middle class folk lack the same?

isn't that the point to being a progressive -- to work for healthcare for all?

[The2ndWheel]

8. And an American has better health care than most horses

If you're worth something, you get all the goodies. If you're an interchangable cog, you're expendable.

[Philosoraptor]

9. They'd spend just as much on a cock roach if you made millions off it.

They don't give a damn about the horse, OR the millions of poor, uninsured Americans.

[Caoimhe]

10. I hope Barbaro lives

We all need heros and that is just what he is to many. Silly? Sure. You and I aren't paying for his care. Indeed, he wouldn't be kept alive if he had not won the Derby and been undefeated. He will make a fortune in stud service in his life, and I for one am glad they didn't just euthanize him on the track in front of the world. He's a beautiful horse with a champion's heart.

Uncomparible situations, in my opinion.

[Philosoraptor]

11. Hero? A racehorse? You might look up the word hero.

That's a much abused word.

[Caoimhe]

13. Endowed with great strength and courage

It works for me. I do think animals can be heroes. Watch Seabiscuit or even better, Phar Lap sometime.

[Benhurst]

12. Get on message. Life is cheap in BushAmerica. The horse in

question is worth millions of Dollars, much more than the average citizen.

But not to worry, rich Americans get some of the best health care in the world.

As for the rest of us, we are expendable.

[Caoimhe]

15. and you might mention

if this were Farmer Joe's horse Betsy- down the road that stepped in a hole and twisted her ankle, she'd probably be shot on the spot and buried right in the pasture. Barbaro is no ordinary horse, he's a champion and he's worth millions. Luckily you and I aren't paying his medical bills, hmm?

[Jack Rabbit]

14. This is a materialistic society, ISAS.

If it's not worth money, it's not worth anything. That includes people and horses.

Barbaro is worth an expensive operation because the horse is worth a lot of money to its owners. If you or I suffered severe injuries in an auto accident, they wouldn't go to that expense to save either of us, even if it were with the reasonable expectation of returning us to work as productive members of society (note the emphasis).

[Caoimhe]

18. I broke my foot last year

thankfully with humans our doctors can fix us up, tell us to keep weight off of it and do rehab. If worse comes to worse, a human can lose a leg or both and still live a long life. Not so with horses, it's like balancing a car on four toothpicks, then taking one of the toothpicks away. They don't understand "don't put any weight on it" and it's physically very hard for them not to given their weight. Obviously this horses owners want to see him through this, even though he will never compete again. That's their choice, and I for one will be following his recovery.

[kestrel91316]

21. He's also worth the surgery because the owners no doubt

paid a serious chunk of change for a very good insurance policy.

IMHO they are completely within their rights to pursue their medical and surgical options. In this sense it's like any other piece of private property. If it were a house that was damaged in an earthquake and the owners had the insurance to rebuild, they have the right to use the policy and go for it.

[bklyncowgirl]

34. Barbaro had life insurance not health insurance

According to some of the racing boards I've visited you can't get health insurance on a race horse (you can for an ordinary nag like mine but no one's insuring those million dollar race horse legs)

If his owners had opted to put him down they'd have walked off with something to the tune of $20 million.

If he survives but is unable to breed in the way that nature and the U.S. Jockey Club dictates they will end up with the world's most expensive lawn ornament/household pet. Apparently they think it's worth it. To horse breeders like the Jacksons, Barbaro is a dream come true. He also won them over a million in the Derby and while the owners are quite wealthy, you might say he's funding his own recovery.

Oh and by the way, some of the surgical techniques that are used on human atheletes and accident victims today were pioneered on race horses. Some soldier wounded in Iraq might have a leg saved because of what veterinary surgeons learned from working on injured horses.

[Debau2005]

16. Or look at it another way

A lot of human techniques are first used on animals. Some revolutionary human treatment might come out of an equine operation of this kind.

And yes, if this had been one of my horses, we would have never been able to afford this type of surgery and would have had to put him down. Vet care is no different then human care in some regards...the haves get the best, the have nots get nothing...

[Scoody Boo]

23. Apples and Oranges...

While National Healthcare is turly necessary, there will never be any such thing as National Veterinary care. The people that can afford to pay thousands in veterinary bills for a horse are paying for them out of their own pocket and have no bearing on healthcare for humans.

I hope the poor horse pulls through. It was a pretty horrific injury in front of a national audience.

[rocktivity]

24. DING DING DING! Ishoutandscream, you're our grand prize winner!

...if it was just a common, everyday horse, he probably would have been put to sleep...

I thought that was the standard procedure, and I thought it was because it was the more humane thing to do in the long run.

:headbang:
rocknation

[CottonBear]

31. I have health insurance for my horse that will cover a yearly $ limit.

However, there is a limit to what I can afford to have done if she broke something. If she could recover to be a brood mare I would try and save her because she is a pedigreed and well-bred warmblood mare who is registered with a breed association. I could lease her to someone for breeding purposes or breed her for purposes of getting another riding horse. That's why I bought a filly rather than a colt or gelding.

[novalib]

25. Two Types of HealthCare in Amerika

Type One HealthCare: HealthCare for rich people and their horses.

Type Two HealthCare: "care" for the rest of us.

No better example that this week-end of the difference between the rich and the rest of us.

[CAcyclist]

26. Why not complain about someone buying a $100,000 car?

Or paying millions for a mansion?

That money could have gone to care for people's health,too. There isn't a finite resource for health care in America and veterinarians can't treat humans. If I hadn't gone to vet school, I damn well would not have gone to human medical school.

Why is it always when an animal has money spent on them, that people ask questions like this?

How about the flip side to this? How about the woman who let her dog get into rat poison and didn't want to spend a couple hundred bucks to board it and medicate it because she was going to a friend's wedding, so she took it to the humane society and had it euthanized? How about the people who "can't afford" to treat medical conditions for their pets costing a few hundred dollars but drive up in a brand new Mercedes?

[novalib]

27. OK. $100,000 is WAY too much

$100,000 is WAAAAAAY too much to pay for a car.

A Car, at best, is a means -- to get from "point A" to "point B".

And paying millions for a mansion?

A mansion that has 40,000 square feet?

Way too much money wasted on way too much space.

We have our priorities ALL WRONG in this country!

[CAcyclist]

28. You're also forgetting what happens to most horses

at the end of their useful lives. We are not yet slaughtering our grandparents for the export meat market.

[lumberjack_jeff]

29. A $1 chicken gets no attention. A $50m racehorse does.

He gets attention not because he's a living thing but because he's a valuable living thing.

His value is in his ability to create more horses like him. He's a machine; a racehorse factory, and he earns as much compassion from me as the machine shop that makes Ferrari race cars. Just like the factory, I can see why it is economically worthwhile to invest the money to maintain function, but in terms of compassion, I really don't care any more (or less) than I care about the $1 chicken.

If it weren't for the horse racing industry, he'd be just another pet.

[LWolf]

35. It's not the care he's getting that concerns me.

It's the fact that the care isn't available to all the horses that give what they've got, champion or not, to serve human purposes. Just the same as human health care; it isn't universal.

As far as his surgery goes, I'm ambivalent. I've personally known and dealt with horses who survived broken legs and went on to live good lives. Two of them were stallions who broke legs on the track. Not the multiple breaks/shattering that Barbaro suffered, but serious single breaks. As a horsewoman, I value breeding potential. I also recognize when irresponsible breeding and practices begin to produce animals that may be faster, but more likely to break down. Bad breeding practices exist in other breeds, bred for other disciplines as well. Those bad practices usually hinge on the almighty dollar, with industry profit controlling the breeding shed, rather than long-term animal health. Considering how much space and feed and money a horse takes, how many people can afford to keep horses as pets that can't be used after they aren't sound anymore?

Still the senior mare out in my pasture right now is the daughter of a tb that broke a cannon bone in training on a track back in the 60s. His owners were set to put him down. A family member took him instead, and he healed well enough to spend 25 years in relative comfort. I wouldn't have my incredibly versatile, athletic, sound, and talented mare if he'd been put down.

[Octafish]

36. Send this to Dr. Dean's office...

Spot-on, Ishoutandscream2.

You've defined modern conservatism:

"A horse has better healthcare than most Americans."

WARMONKEY