First, let’s be clear about what “cognitive dissonance” is.
The simplest way to define it is…
Cognitive dissonance is a mental conflict that occurs when your beliefs don’t line up with your actions.
Psychiatrist Grant H. Brenner MD, FAPA, co-founder of Neighborhood Psychiatry, in Manhattan further explains it this way, “The degree of discomfort varies with the subject matter, as well as with how well the person copes with self-contradiction.”
So here are a couple of examples.
How about the smoker who knows very well that nicotine causes lung cancer but takes puff after puff anyway to ease anxiety in the moment—and then feels a sense of shame and guilt?
“There’s some sort of discrepancy between what your values are and what you feel in that moment,” says Thea Gallagher, PsyD, assistant professor and director of the outpatient clinic at the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety (CTSA) in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Or take the vegan who purchases a leather bag, the environmentally-conscious guy who buys a car that runs on gas, and the list goes on.
Why do people say they go into the horse racing industry because they love horses?
Aren’t they aware that in every aspect of racing and breeding, they are being compromised and their love of horses is being exploited?
Perhaps it is incremental and they don’t notice that their values are being undermined
Are people in their own silos and do not know the whole truth?
For example, old brood mares are routinely sent to slaughter when they are no longer producing foals.
What are the workers told?
Are they told older mares and horses that don’t make it on the track or age out or those who sustain career-ending injuries have been turned out to pasture and retired?
When you love a horse and it suddenly disappears – what do you think – how do you feel?
When working in the horse racing industry do you simply have to accept that he or she has gone to slaughter?
There is a thoroughbred stud (breeding operation) in Australia where a large percentage of the brood mares are listed as having died at 15 years of age.
(Horses can easily live well into their 20’s and even beyond.)
Or at 15 they are listed as “retired”.
Unfortunately, they are sent to the Meramist abattoir.
PLEASE MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT
SLAUGHTER IS NOT HUMANE EUTHANASIA
Knackery workers will tell you that horses smell death and danger as soon as they enter the premises.
Other people say that horses can smell the place of death by just passing by.
Slaughter is cruel and inhumane.
How does someone who professes to be in the racing industry because they love horses justify the fact that the industry refers to horses they no longer want as “wastage”? [Learn more about horse “wastage” in the racing industry here.]
Horse rescues and sanctuaries are inundated with young and old race industry “discards” including brood mares the industry “considers” old.
Many horse rescues are left with the gut-wrenching task of having to say no to the broodmares the racing industry no longer feels are viable. Horses who are not really old, but rather middle-aged.
Rescues and sanctuaries often have to turn these horses away to keep room and space for younger horses – how must that make those caring souls who are running rescues feel?
How horrible must it be placed in that position?
If you work in the horse racing industry and accept that unwanted horses go to slaughter – please stop saying you love horses.
If you feel compromised, that you have been exploited to work in racing or breeding, please let us know.
#MOHM NEEDS YOUR HELP!
We’ve been threatened by those in the horse racing industry and those who benefit from horse slaughter more times than we can count.
But we are not going away.
We are going to persist until horse slaughter no longer exists for any purpose within Australia -- and until the horse racing industry makes drastic changes.
We are going to continue our hands-on work to offer lifelong sanctuary to as many horses as possible. We generally have 20 at just one of our locations - at any given time.
We have the acreage to take on more horses as financial support allows.
MOHM BRUMBY SPECIFIC WEBSITE
#MOHM HAS A BRUMBY SPECIFIC WEBSITE TOOAs you know we are dedicated to banning the slaughter of horses in Australia for any purpose and that includes wild horses. Please join us on our "sister" website dedicated to banning the slaughter of wild horses AKA Brumbies for...
HORSE RACING CEO IGNORES VETERINARIANS
10 YEAR STUDY IGNORED BY RACING INDUSTRYPeter V’landys is once again trying to pass himself off as someone who is a defender and protector of horses.WHO IS PETER V'LANDYS?Peter V’landys is an Australian horse racing and rugby league administrator. He is the chief...
CPR RACEHORSE DEATHWATCH
CPR DEATHWATCH REPORT 2024The Deathwatch report, meticulously compiled each year by the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses (CPR), shines a stark light on the tragedies inherent in horse racing. While the racing industry often cites statistics to highlight...
Join us on social media and become a keyboard warrior.
