HORSES AND COWS

A couple illustrations of why our relationship to our food is so screwed up. This St. Petersburg Times columnist seems mystified at how "squeamish" Americans are about eating horse meat (after all, something needs to be done with those who have "outlived their usefulness") and mixes his metaphors by calling horses a "sacred cow" here. Meanwhile, in a small farm town outside Seattle, residents are struck dumb by the brutality of one of their own kids, who clubbed 33 calves in the head, killing 16 of them. Four of the calves, it's said, are in "critical condition." The head of the Washington State Dairy Association pointed out that cows are "like family -- you know who their mothers are, their fathers, their grandmothers." Awwwww. So... when a crazed kid does it, it's unspeakable, inexplicable brutality to defenseless creatures. When the slaughterhouse worker down the road does it... it's dinner.