An anti-slaughter billboard has popped up on the Mass Pike in western Massachusetts in the 'Sweet Baby James' zone. Source Image.
Cross-posted from Equus via The Jurga Report
By FRAN JURGA
The first of December was covered with snow
So was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston
Though the Berkshires seemed dreamlike on account of that frosting
With ten miles behind me and ten thousand more to go . . .
– “Sweet Baby James” by James Taylor
That song is an anthem in the State of Massachusetts. If you want to go east or west in the state, you take the Turnpike. It really does go from Stockbridge in the west to Boston in the east. For horsemen, it’s the road to the horse shows at the Eastern States Exposition grounds, the Northampton Fair races or, for the golden month of August, Saratoga.
And travelers of all ages hum Sweet Baby James to themselves as they zoom along.
But something happened this winter along the Turnpike. A new billboard rose in the sky at the intersection of I-291 near Springfield. It calls for an end to horse slaughter. STOP SLAUGHTERING US the billboard demands. Ironically, the rural countryside along the Turnpike is periodically bordered with paddocks. Horses graze peacefully on both sides of the arrow-straight highway.
The billboard doesn’t say, “Help us stop horse slaughter.” It doesn’t even say “Stop horse slaughter.” Its three-word message is as if voiced by the horses themselves. “Stop slaughtering us.” And they’re talking to you. Yes, you, the lonely commuter in your Honda stuck in traffic on the way to work. You might see it again on the way home.
This might not be the last story that you read here connecting that state with horse slaughter. Another billboard is about to rise at the end of this month, this time on the Southeast Expressway in urban Boston. Commuters on the most clogged access road in and out of Boston are about to get the Stop Slaughtering Us message. See full post and related videos >>
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American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act
ENDORSE H.R. 2966 and S. 1176 plus send your comments guaranteed to Congress and read what others are saying about this legislation via PopVox >>
