Cute pink unicorn or nefarious animal abuse?

[RecoveringKinkoid]

So I was at a place this past couple days that had a pink unicorn at it.

Seriously, it was a pink unicorn. I have pictures, which I can post when I get a chance to get them off my camera.

Breast cancer awareness, right? Raffle for the Susan Komen, contest for the best use of pink, etc. It was an SCA event.

So here's this half grown colt someone colored pink and stuck a horn on his head. It was cute.

Man, one of the girls in my group flipped the fuck out to the point where it was seriously starting to get on my nerves. You would have thought we were watching bear baiting or somethinhg the way she was carrying on about this dye job this horse was sporting. She was all "I ought to call the SPCA!" blah blah blah. I notice she didn't actually DO it, so clearly, it wasn.t THAT offensive to her. And every time it got mentioned, she'd start up again. "You just don't do that! That's wrong!"

And I was all like "So what?"

But jeeze! It's dye! It's not like someone poured napalm all over this horse! It was pink dye of some sort, and I imagine it was safe and easy to remove, too, since it was on this lady's otherwise very well cared for horse.

Weigh in. How offensive do you all consider the act making a horse of a different color?

[BroomJockey]

Wait, it was the dye she was pissed about? Fruitcake. Depending on how the horn was affixed, that could have been a concern, but the DYE?!

[RecoveringKinkoid]

The horn appeared to be made of a soft-ish gold fabric over a semi-rigid frame. It was very small, and affixed to the same sort of face pad that fits on a horse's forehead that a lot of our horses wear when they are dressed up in their stuff.

No, she was banging on ad nauseum about the dye.

[Savannah]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but horses don't groom themselves by licking, right? I'd have concerns about dying a cat or rat because they would lick the dye off (if it was totally non-toxic, I'd be fine).

If the owner were dying the horse long-term, purely for aesthetic reasons, I might have a problem, just because it indicates that she cares more for the horse's appearance than other factors. Since it was short-term and for a fund-raiser, I see nothing wrong with it. (Heck, I'd dye one of my pets for that sort of reason!)

I agree with BroomJockey, I'd be more concerned about the horn. But if the horse didn't seem to mind, there's nothing wrong with it.

Long post short, the girl was nuts...

[Cat]

Yeah, it depends on the type of dye....if it was safe, then no worries....it might cause the colt some annoyance while getting dyed, but no over all harm.

If the girl was really that PO'd she should have done something, like ask about the dye instead of just whining

[MaggieTheCat]

Hard to tell since we don't know what kind of dye it was and whether it was toxic, etc. I would assume it's totally fine, since stuff like that is usually non-toxic these days. If the dye WAS toxic (and your friend knew that, somehow) then I could see her flipping out.

EITHER WAY, she was still annoying for flipping out but not doing anything about it. If you're that much of an animal rights activist, then that's cool, but if you're gonna talk the talk, then walk the walk. Moaning and whining about it doesn't do crap except annoy everyone around you.

[XCashier]

I cannot picture a responsible horse owner applying a toxic dye to an expensive animal. It's likely non-toxic, and will probably wash off with a good shampoo. And it's not the first time it's ever happened; they've dyed horses and other animals for various films (IIRC, they had a "horse of a different color" in The Wizard Of Oz [it's been ages since I've seen the movie] and I know they colored a horse pink in one episode of That 70s Show).

I don't think that girl was acting up on behalf of the horse; rather, I think she was saying "Look at ME! Look at what a great animal lover I am! See how enlightened I am! Me, me, ME!" I've seen this type of schtick before, and I am Not Impressed.

[DesignFox]

I've spent a lot of time around horses. Now, while some horse owners would do things that will make you cringe (mostly the kind of thing that would make you go wtf? not anything purposely abusive), I highly doubt that was the case here. If this is a high profile event, doing a high profile sponsorship, and you have an obviously well-cared for animal that is behaving itself...chances are the owner did not do something so stupid as to apply a toxic dye allover her EXPENSIVE animal.

Horses are not cheap. I mean, you CAN get one for cheap...but the cost of the animal's up-keep is no joke.

Unless the horse was fussing, pawing, pinning it's ears, trembling, trying to roll, rubbing its nose all-over itself, or showing some other obvious sign of discomfort...I'm sure it had no problem with the horn attachment or the color of its coat.

FYI to your friend RK- they make and sell ALL SORTS of body glitters, hoof polishes and colored dyes for horses. Tell her to take a look through a tack catalog. That'll make her head spin.

And I would so love to see those photos!

[blas87]

I think some people are overly self righteous and over zealous about certain things, but are the types who'd rather flap their gums and go on and on about how big of a difference they make, when they aren't really members of an organization or really don't belong to it, they just like to preach.

If I hear one more person go "I hate TV. I don't watch TV. I READ!" and then proceed to go on a several minute babble about how people who watch TV are sheep who can't think, I'll beat that person to a pulp with my sharpest high heeled shoe.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Well, it was fussing while I was trying to photograph it, but not because it was itchy. It seemed to be unhappy being separated off from the other horses. It''s coat did not seem to be bothering it.

I saw it later with the other horses, sans horn, and it was peacefully grazing in the corral with all the others, no problem.

It was being displayed for a short time, with the horn, and it wasn't particularly thrilled. But it didn't seem to be in discomfort, it was just annoyed at not being able to run around with it's friends.

The kicker was that my friend, as far as I know, never laid eyes on the thing. She just heard someone dyed a horse pink and her cheese slipped completely off her cracker about it.

[Nyoibo]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but horses don't groom themselves by licking, right?

No , they don't, they scratch itches with thier mouths but that's about it.

Said person is an idiot and attention whore methinks.

[LewisLegion]

I've said it before, I had better never get hold of a white poodle because the dog would be a different color every holiday/fund-raiser. Just give me a white poodle and some powdered kool aid and this girl would probably flip her wig.

Coloring an animal briefly with something non-toxic...please, there are much bigger things in the world to worry about.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Her head would explode if she saw all the green dogs down in Savannah for St. Paddy's.

You know she flipped her wig on a couple things of late, thinking about it.

She ikes to get pissed about what I personally consider dumb stuff. But then, hey. What is important to her is clearly not important to me, so I guess that is an arrogant statment.

I mean, this is not some dumb little girl, this lady is my age.

She got all pissy about this documentary we were all sort of halfway in. (someone had shot some footage at an SCA event and some of us ended up in it, more or less.) The filmmakers had asked me for permission, which I granted. I mentioned it at band practice and nobody cared anything about it, it was fine. We forgot about it. A couple years passed. Next thing you know the things available on Netflix and she's saying someone owes us for royalties. We're all looking at her like she grew a third tit. We had no idea this documentary was a big deal, really, we thought it was someone's personal project or school thing, but knowing it was a big deal would not have changed our response. We did not mind being used in it, and we granted permission. The end. Nobody owes us anything.

After getting the same reaction multiple times by multiple people, she shut up about it, but sheesh! The hell is that about? Freaking embarassing. I told her to please do not put me in the position of sitting in a courtroom testifying against her.

I mean, I love this person dearly, but this shit is getting old.

[gremcint]

she's probably like the ppl who said this was animal abuse:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_udqEp_YR4

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Oh, that was cute. And funny!

Is it sick of me that I REEEEALY want to send her this link?