Urgghh - A Million Tears

[Zuzan]

Disgusting sentimental sop...

Not complaining about remembering the animals that served but really trying to turn it into a sentimental song is beyond disgusting and hypocritcal.. as Brexit UK reduces animal welfare standards ..

Never mind the British Army shot surviving horses of WW1 rather than bring them home .. no romantic happy ending for them.

 

[teapot]

Never mind the British Army shot surviving horses of WW1 rather than bring them home .. no romantic happy ending for them.

Umm not quite as black and white as that. https://lucybetteridgedyson.com/2020/11/04/straight-from-the-horses-mouth/

Lucy should know too, her postgrad research is literally on the use of horses in the FWW.

 

[Zuzan]

Umm not quite as black and white as that. https://lucybetteridgedyson.com/2020/11/04/straight-from-the-horses-mouth/

Lucy should know too, her postgrad research is literally on the use of horses in the FWW.

That blog doesn't actually state that most of the horses sent to WW1 that survived weren't shot..

There is an entry for the Aussie horses to that effect .. but it fails to say exactly what happened to the healthy sound horses that weren't returned to Australia.

It would be useful if her blog posts cited references. Having never heard of Lucy Betteridge-Dyson how am I supposed to know whether to believe her or the documentaries that I have seen which claim otherwise?

Irrespective of the supposed myth of surviving horses being shot rather than returned to the UK (or elsewhere) that saccharine sentimental "song" is a travesty of the horror of the reality of war ..whether experienced by human or any other animal... which is the point I was making in the first place.

 

[teapot]

That blog doesn't actually state that most of the horses sent to WW1 that survived weren't shot..

There is an entry for the Aussie horses to that effect .. but it fails to say exactly what happened to the healthy sound horses that weren't returned to Australia.

It would be useful if her blog posts cited references. Having never heard of Lucy Betteridge-Dyson how am I supposed to know whether to believe her or the documentaries that I have seen which claim otherwise?

Irrespective of the supposed myth of surviving horses being shot rather than returned to the UK (or elsewhere) that saccharine sentimental "song" is a travesty of the horror of the reality of war ..whether experienced by human or any other animal... which is the point I was making in the first place.

Go read the four key texts she refers to. The half a million number re UK horses used comes direct from Army records, as I've read them myself.

Do you really think though that every single horse regardless of the ill health/injured state they were in should have been brought home? Rather than decisions being made to have them shot in France at the time? There are fates worse than death.

 

[Arzada]

Death was a way better option than being sold into the working horse market in eg Egypt. For the love of horses: the dairies of Mrs Geoffrey Brooke makes for very upsetting reading. Many years later starting in 1930 when she saw the plight of the ex war horses, Dorothy Brooke bought every British ex WW1 horse that she could find. Most were treated to days of rest and comfort and then put down. More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Brooke

 

[HappyHollyDays]

My dad was in India when WW2 broke out, every single horse and mule was shot. That’s a whole Regiment pre mechanisation. It broke his heart but the fate had they left them in the hands of the locals would have been far worse. Sometimes things are done for the very best reasons.

 

[Zuzan]

What I am objecting to is the asinine hypocritical sentimental tripe of the "song" supposedly to remember the animals that served in war.

What I object to is the use of any animal in the theatre of war and sentimentalising of war in any form.

 

[Widgeon]

Disgusting sentimental sop...
Not complaining about remembering the animals that served but really trying to turn it into a sentimental song is beyond disgusting and hypocritcal.. as Brexit UK reduces animal welfare standards ..
Never mind the British Army shot surviving horses of WW1 rather than bring them home .. no romantic happy ending for them.

I agree with you. Regardless of exactly what happened to them (which is an interesting discussion in itself, thanks to the posters who shared the links) the point is that there was no happy ending for most / many of them. But isn't that like so many things - we've got a sacharine song that we can all listen to and weep over rather than thinking about how we can actually best prevent animal suffering now. Personally I think it's along the same lines as people who buy dog cologne and doggy spa days for their pugs but still eat factory farmed meat without thinking about the moral implications of it*. None of us is perfect but surely we should try to think about our failings rather than just cover them up with sentimentality.

(*I'm not talking about people who don't have enough cash to buy more ethically farmed food, that's a whole other problem)