Happy Lunar New Year, it's the Year of the Horse!

Last night January 31, 2014 marked Lunar New Year (also known as Chinese New Year but it's also celebrated in lots of other Asian countries).   It's supposed to be all about getting together and eating a ton of food with your family, cleaning out all the clutter in your life beforehand, settling debts, etc etc.  I had to read the wikipedia page for it, because even though I am of Chinese descent, I grew up in the Midwest and I don't know all the customs. (Picture above courtesy of a mass email from my Aunt, I hope that the Chinese reads Gong Hay Fat Choy, otherwise I'm no different than when people don't know what their tattoos say).

So let's talk about horses for a second (the animal, not the people born 12x years ago), because they had a rough year in 2013!

• NYC Horse Carriages continued to operate: in the scorching heat and sun, freezing snow and rain.  They walk all day on the hard pavement, breathing exhaust, pulling heavy carriages and tourists, they get in accidents, and some are forced to work while injured by sketchy drivers (I'm not saying all drivers are as bad as that guy, but I've seen so many run red lights, text while driving, etc). 
• Horses died while racing:  These animals are given "performance enhancing" drugs, then given other drugs to cover up the use of the illegal drugs, forced to race when they are injured, drugged up with painkillers so they don't know they are injured, and then they injure themselves to the point where they have to be euthanized.  That industry is incredibly corrupt and cruel, once you start reading about all the sad things that happen to race horses, you'll never want to watch a race again.  
• Horse meat was found in the human food supply: This is really messed up on so many levels.  Especially because a lot of horses sent to slaughter come from the racing industry, where as mentioned above they are pumped up with chemicals that should not be in the food supply.
• Horses were slaughtered:  Healthy American horses are shipped to Canada and Mexico to be cut up and sold as meat (see above).
• "Horse Soring" exists - Certain kinds of show horses have burning chemicals applied to their legs so they walk weird - help end that practice!

So here's to a fresh start and hoping that 2014 and the Year of the Horse is better for them!  So far, NYC's new mayor DiBlasio already promised to retire the horses in the carriage industry (and they all have adoptive homes waiting for them), that's a good start. Also, Congress has temporarily blocked horse slaughter in the US, you can help make it permanent!   GONG HAY FAT CHOY!