how "real sports" on hbo traumatized me for life
so the other day, i was laying in bed watching tv. there was nothing on so i switched to hbo and found that "real sports" with that one guy (bryant gumble, maybe?) was on. normally, i would simply change the channel as i enjoy sports, but i generally don't enjoy watching shows about them. anyway, they reeled me in with this story on crazy obsessed sport parents and they were highlighting this couple who's son was a wrestler. the kicker: the son was like, 4 years old and his dad was yelling at this little boy because he lost a match. little boy is fucking crying his little eyes out "i did the best i could, i pwomise!" and his akard ass dad is like, "no you didn't or you wouldn't have lost!" and then he probably went home and beat the kid. crazy, i know...but this is not the reason for my entry. this is:
so after this 'wrestling akards and their akard vicarious dreams' segment, i see that the next story is going to be about horse racing and how the horses are often "discarded" when they are no longer able to race. as most people who know me are aware, i am a bleeding heart animal lover and at the top of my animal love fest list are cats and horses. again, i would normally change the channel because a story like this would rip my heart out BUUUUUTTTTT, hbo led me to believe via this preview that this was going to be a heart warming story of how this one lady rescued the unwanted horses. W-R-O-N-G!
story comes on and off the bat they begin telling the story of this one race horse, "never has a day off" or something like that. they begin by showing some old footage of her racing and then a reel of her losing a race. then they go to "hidden camera footage of her owner talking to this guy saying he can't afford to keep her on because she's not winning and makes this deal for the other guy to buy the horse. well, turns out that this other guy is known in the circuit as "the meat man". they cut to some other footage of meat man driving around to stables in his dark, scary trailer. now, i have long since heard that they turn race horses into alpo, glue, etc but in my blind naivety i REALLY REALLY thought that shit was urban legend or a practice that had fallen by the way-side many moons ago.
ok, so then they cut to the rescue lady and talk about how she goes around and saves these horses. here's how it works:
meat man buys the horse then sells it at the meat auction where buyers can sell the horse meat to countries where there is a market for horse meat. well rescue lady goes to the auctions and out bids the meat dudes and takes the horse home. well, naturally she can't save every horse...and so the story goes:
cut back to never has a day off's story. they show the meat man trying to load her into his trailer and she fucking knows where she's going. she's bucking and kicking and refusing to enter the trailer, all while getting beat by the guys trying to load her in. they finally load her in and then they cut to the "meat auction". hundreds of horses corralled into this stable thing and this guy's throwing numbers onto them.....ALL of these horses are freaked because, being the highly intelligent creatures they are, they KNOW WHY THEY ARE THERE! some get trampled and die. horrible. FUCKING A HORRIBLE. so, naturally i'm in full on tears at this point but i can't fucking change the channel because i'm SURE that this story is going to be how rescue lady outbids everyone for the horse in the story, never has a day off, and for at least this one horse there's a happy ending. i'm sure of this, ok. SURE of it.
W-R-O-N-G!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
as it turns out, rescue lady is outbid and never has a day off goes to the slaughter house, where (before i could change the channel) they quickly cut to a video of her being shot in the head with one of those guns. HBO, YOU GUYS ARE A-HOLES. i cried all night. i'm not even joking. i cried my self to sleep.
i did it to myself. i should know better. i quickly learned that i have to change the channel when the sarah mclaughlin commercial about abused dogs & cats comes on. i don't know what made me think this story was going to be at ALL g-rated. maybe because it was real sports? i don't know.
this was a few weeks ago and i've finally been able to "get over it" so i just had to talk about it because it really impacted my life. that might sound retarded, but i'm serious.
i do have to have a chuckle because as i read over this entry before posting, i notice one somewhat comical fact: i was way more traumatized over the abuse of the horse than i was the abuse of the 4 year old. and that is why i have a cat as a "son". :)
so after this 'wrestling akards and their akard vicarious dreams' segment, i see that the next story is going to be about horse racing and how the horses are often "discarded" when they are no longer able to race. as most people who know me are aware, i am a bleeding heart animal lover and at the top of my animal love fest list are cats and horses. again, i would normally change the channel because a story like this would rip my heart out BUUUUUTTTTT, hbo led me to believe via this preview that this was going to be a heart warming story of how this one lady rescued the unwanted horses. W-R-O-N-G!
story comes on and off the bat they begin telling the story of this one race horse, "never has a day off" or something like that. they begin by showing some old footage of her racing and then a reel of her losing a race. then they go to "hidden camera footage of her owner talking to this guy saying he can't afford to keep her on because she's not winning and makes this deal for the other guy to buy the horse. well, turns out that this other guy is known in the circuit as "the meat man". they cut to some other footage of meat man driving around to stables in his dark, scary trailer. now, i have long since heard that they turn race horses into alpo, glue, etc but in my blind naivety i REALLY REALLY thought that shit was urban legend or a practice that had fallen by the way-side many moons ago.
ok, so then they cut to the rescue lady and talk about how she goes around and saves these horses. here's how it works:
meat man buys the horse then sells it at the meat auction where buyers can sell the horse meat to countries where there is a market for horse meat. well rescue lady goes to the auctions and out bids the meat dudes and takes the horse home. well, naturally she can't save every horse...and so the story goes:
cut back to never has a day off's story. they show the meat man trying to load her into his trailer and she fucking knows where she's going. she's bucking and kicking and refusing to enter the trailer, all while getting beat by the guys trying to load her in. they finally load her in and then they cut to the "meat auction". hundreds of horses corralled into this stable thing and this guy's throwing numbers onto them.....ALL of these horses are freaked because, being the highly intelligent creatures they are, they KNOW WHY THEY ARE THERE! some get trampled and die. horrible. FUCKING A HORRIBLE. so, naturally i'm in full on tears at this point but i can't fucking change the channel because i'm SURE that this story is going to be how rescue lady outbids everyone for the horse in the story, never has a day off, and for at least this one horse there's a happy ending. i'm sure of this, ok. SURE of it.
W-R-O-N-G!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
as it turns out, rescue lady is outbid and never has a day off goes to the slaughter house, where (before i could change the channel) they quickly cut to a video of her being shot in the head with one of those guns. HBO, YOU GUYS ARE A-HOLES. i cried all night. i'm not even joking. i cried my self to sleep.
i did it to myself. i should know better. i quickly learned that i have to change the channel when the sarah mclaughlin commercial about abused dogs & cats comes on. i don't know what made me think this story was going to be at ALL g-rated. maybe because it was real sports? i don't know.
this was a few weeks ago and i've finally been able to "get over it" so i just had to talk about it because it really impacted my life. that might sound retarded, but i'm serious.
i do have to have a chuckle because as i read over this entry before posting, i notice one somewhat comical fact: i was way more traumatized over the abuse of the horse than i was the abuse of the 4 year old. and that is why i have a cat as a "son". :)