Man and horse: a fundamentally problematic and interest-oriented dependent moral of human relationship Abstracts

From the point of view of evolutionary biology, organisms manage to live especially by using individuals of other species. The relationship of the human being to the horse corresponds to this principle of nature, among other things. Most of the time when men met horses, they used them - justified by the majority of religions - as prey animals. That meant killing these animals and to taking them as food. The moral analysis and judgement of the intraspecies and interspecies behaviour is a specifically human phenomenon. The moral orientation does not necessarily suppose an altruistic engagement for the horse. Man arranges the well-being of that animal, in the long run, primarily as a necessary means of using the horse reliably. Such a protection of the horse results in following up man's interests. It means, from the man's point of view, that this manner is egoistically motivated. The restriction of using the sport horse in ways which are compatible with the natural behaviour of this equid is one of the dominant demands nowadays. Presupposing the rigidity of natural behaviour, the unavoidable deviation from natural behaviour which results from the man keeping and using the horse consequently makes horse-compatible keeping and using impossible. In some cases, it is impossible to prove the pain, suffering and/or damage definitely caused by the special methods used to keep and use the horse. However, that proof is relevant for the German law regarding the welfare of animals. The missing proof creates an uncertainty of judgements. This means that the health and well-being of the horse cannot be guaranteed only by orders and prohibitions, which are established by definite proof of disease. From the moral point of view, the well-being of the horse in cases of doubt can only be guaranteed by measures which depend on the principle "in dubio pro equo", defined by the competent and unideological judgement of experts.