I want to be clear and honest about this, when I wrote the story about Fate nearly drowning, I understood that I would be soon writing this one as well, I am used to it.  I am not angry or coy about it, and I do anticipate it. I do this because we desperately need to understand the real lives of real animals, or there won’t be any. The drama of the New York Carriage Horses and the elephants in the circus and the ponies in the farmer’s markets and the border collies herding sheep is this: because we don’t understand what the lives of animals are like any longer – we are coming to see all animals as pets or abused creatures – they are disappearing from our world.

It is becoming too difficult and fraught or controversial for many people to own animals, there are too many laws, too many secret informers, too many animal lovers paving the road to Hell with good intentions.

So when trouble occurs, I deliberately write about it, and it is almost a ritual to wait for the inevitable messages of alarm, concern or anger that show us how far we have come from farms, the natural world and from understanding the true nature of animals.

Animals like the carriage horses will pay for this with their lives if we do not learn the truth about them. As in this: it is not abuse for them to pull light carriages in Central Park, they are the luckiest horses in the world. Some circus elephants have been mistreated, many have not, and they will all soon perish because they have nowhere to go and no other work to do.

It is not abuse for a cow to stand in the snow, for a horse to lie down and take a nap, for water tanks to freeze in the winter, for a pig to get frostbite in – 27 temperatures,  for a child to ride a pony, for a border collie to jump into a water bucket.

It is not possible to create a farm environment where accidents like the one that befell Fate can be completely avoided, that is not the real world of animals. No animal on earth lives a life free of risk, no human does either. We are holding animals and the people who live with them to an impossible standard, and it is too often based on fear, ignorance or hysteria. Animals and people are partners, animals are not superior or inferior to us, they share the joys and travails of the earth. Last month, we hit a deer. Life happens.

Our neuroses and ignorance are driving animals from the earth. If you wish to judge other people and their life with, then you owe it to yourself and them to know what you are talking about. This is why Joshua Rockwood, a young and honest farmer,  is facing jail and trial rather than tending to and growing his farm. Because we have lost touch with the reality of living with animals. Fate’s bucket mishap matters. It is not a question of petulance, but of truth and compassion.

The ritual goes like this: I post a story about a mishap or trouble involving an animal, there is a flood of lectures, warnings, snarky or righteous messages. I write about them, and then other people get angry at me for doing so, as if I am picking on poor people who just mean well.  After all, I share my life, aren’t I asking for it?

I am not angry, nor am I seeking to punish anyone. And I am not asking for it.

It is my duty not only to post cute photos of animals, but to try and educate people as to what they are like. There is a great and growing schism in the country between people with pets and people with animals, and here, on my blog, many people in both cultures come together. I have pets and I have animals. So here we go again, I am meeting what I see as my responsibility to be honest about life here, and to respond to this deepening gap in a hopefully positive way. I do it for the animals. And for the people who wish to learn something about them, rather than make judgements from afar.

Fate jumped in the big water bucket after herding, and fell into it, her head and shoulders first, her feet sticking up in the air. I saw her and pulled her out.

One of the first responses came from a reader named Kathryn, I was not surprised to see it, it was posted on Facebook. She was not pleased:

“It really would not take much effort to use a less deep bucket, do what’s best for fate, and take away worry. There is nothing wrong with taking preventative steps. Life doesn’t have to always be harsh with lessons in reality.“

I am not angry with you, Kathryn, I thank you for caring. At the same time, I don’t care to be seen as stupid and callous, I have been living with my animals for a long time, and have lost very few of them for any other than natural reasons (I did shoot a nasty rooster or two.)

Here is some reality for you, in the name of animals, farmers, and animal lovers everywhere, life is not nearly as simple as you would like to see it:

There are about a half dozen shallow buckets and pans, all over the pasture. Fate can drink from any one of them, she prefers the big bucket that is used for the pony, donkeys and sheep.

Here’s the context. It is very hot, the big bucket is always filled with cool and fresh water.

Animals like sheep and other livestock do not have human toilet hygiene. They will eliminate where they stand, and the shallow buckets often fill with feces and urine, dangerous to the animals in terms of infection, and unhealthy. They also walk in the shallow buckets, knock them over, trip on them.

This is why Fate doesn’t drink for them, I believe, she can probably smell the waste material. The shallow buckets have to be changed constantly – they are also out for the chickens and barn cats – and on hot days, they are left empty to dry out. The flies would be unbearable to the animals.

The deep buckets keep the animals from defecating them, or walking in them or knocking them over. That’s why they are big and heavy, so they don’t move when nudged. A donkey or big pony like Chloe will knock one over in a flash if they are not large and filled with water. The donkeys also, and the sheep. It is not possible for Fate to herd the sheep and not be near the big buckets.

So I’m afraid,  Kathryn, that we cannot wave a wand and eliminate worry. We take all kinds of preventive steps all the time, including thousands of dollars in good fencing,  but we cannot create a perfect world for these animals – at least not one we can afford. There are always risk in the natural world. A life with animals is not easy or perfect.

Standards like you are talking about  make it ever more difficult, controversial and dangerous to have animals. Soon enough, some well meaning animal rights blockhead will get to some clueless politician and will demand a law requiring shallow buckets on farms, and farmers will get arrested for not having enough of them or keeping them full. There is harsh reality in life, and we do have to learn it’s lessons, if animals are to remain among us. So, sadly, do our animals.

I do expect comments like yours, this is perhaps the 100th time I have written a piece like this, and some of the response is always the same. It does not surprise me. My response is not done in pique, it is done to help save the animals in our world from extinction and to speak up for the people who love them and live with them.

Fate is a fortunate dog, she has a great life, is adored, she has sheep out the back door, parks and forests and meadows to walk in, people loving her and  with her all day, toys and treats everywhere. If her life isn’t good enough, then what chance does any animal or animal lover have?

We need a new and wiser understanding of animals than this. We must understand the real lives of animals like horses and domesticated elephants and dogs and ponies and sheep, or there will be none around for me to live with or you to worry about.

I appreciate your being courteous and direct, but I think that’s about the best reality I can offer you. I hope you take something from it that is useful to you, and to the vanishing animals of the world.