I woke up this morning to the news that Altantic City will feature a new act this summer featuring horses high-diving off the steel pier.

http://www.barnmice.com/group/barnmicenews/forum/topics/horses-to-h...

You couldn't make this stuff up.

The act is supposed to harken back to the horse diving acts that ran from the 1920s to the '70s, I suppose creating some sort of feeling of nostalgia.

Gee, I though we might have evolved in how we treat our animals through all these years, but it seems money trumps compassion and decent, humane choices. Are we so void of imagination and so hungry for cash that we rationalize away such exploitation?

Are we as humans really so greedy, so hungry for new thrills that we have to have horses leaping off 40 foot high platforms for entertainment?

There is already a backlash building, and I'm certain there will be a backlash to the backlash - all adding to the buzz around the new "entertainment".

This is being marketed as a family show, but what kind of message does it send to children? If, as Ghandi said, "the measure of a society can be how well its people treat its animals", what does forcing horses to high-dive off 40 foot platforms say about us?