My Last Melbourne Cup Blog

Melbourne Cup Day is upon us again.  It is a time of joyous celebration where women dress up in expensive but not particularly concealing clothing and then drink until they throw up over their expensive but not particularly concealing clothing.  It is a time when men dress in smart suits and drink until they are prepared to hit on women whose principal fashion accessory is their own vomit.  In the middle of this jollity a group of midgets in carnival clothes are doing unpleasant things to horses.  Because for some reason it was determined that we needed an excuse to get insanely drunk and indulge in reckless sexual behaviour.  I never have.

This is my last Melbourne Cup blog because I have to admit I'm over it.  I've always been a little ambivalent about horse racing and the Cup a year or so back when a couple of the horses died has pretty much settled it for me.  I'm not really an animal rights activist.  In fact I'm not an animal rights activist at all.  I have no problem killing animals for food, clothing, shelter or simply if they're inconvenient.  Any animal, for example, that blocks my driveway will find itself on the wrong end of an extinction level event.

I do have an issue with killing animals for fun.  Obviously I disapprove of recreational hunting for that reason but I've decided that flogging horses round and round in circles until they drop dead probably comes under the same category.  So; no more betting on the Melbourne Cup, no more watching it on television and no more going to horse races (which I didn't do anyway) not even for the opportunity to hit on babbling drunk girls who have already proved they don't mind bad decision making.

I don't accede to the belief that the people involved in the racing industry are intrinsically cruel.  Most people aren't actually.  The occasional malevolent sadist aside I'm certain most of those in the industry are decent folk who genuinely love horses.  It would be difficult to work in such a horse intensive industry if you didn't like them.  However the industry tests horses to, and sometimes past, breaking point and in order to continue working in it such people must be able to rationalise it so that they don't appear to be animal hating monsters to themselves. 

This is the only time I'll mention it since I don't think there is any benefit to be gained from telling a bunch of fundamentally nice people that they're actually soulless monsters but I'm over horse racing.  I won't support it with my time, presence or cash.  For my colleagues who do, you've got somebody who can watch the phones while you watch the race and believe me I think no less of you for liking the Melbourne Cup than I did yesterday.  Feel free to take the previous sentence any way you like. 

I will hang around at my desk while everybody else goes to watch the race (which our employers kindly broadcast on a big screen in the conference room).  Since everybody else will be watching the race as well I don't anticipate a massive increase in workload or other inconvenience as a result of this sacrifice.  And if you have to make a sacrifice that's the kind to make.