Yellowstone takes stand on slaughter (sort of)

Even though the Paramount Network’s Yellowstone is one of the best television series ever created, the sweeping western drama recently nearly lost its biggest fan. That is, until the most recent episode, “I killed a man today,” restored my loyalty forever.

Welcome to Indifferenceville

I was devastated to watch the episode where Kayce (played with seething heart by Luke Grimes) took a band of horses to auction in an effort to save a family’s farm.

Horse rescuers know, kill buyers snatch up loose horses at auction like Cheech and Chong at a nacho stand. So, while the family may have gotten its Happily Ever After, a band of untrained horses was headed for hell in a foreign slaughterhouse.

My heart sank as I hurtled toward Indifferenceville. No longer did I eagerly anticipate the next episode. When my husband excitedly reminded me of “Yellowstone Night,” my response was, “Meh.”

Once entertainment (or an entertainer) devolves into partisan politics, uses implausible or disjointed dialogue, sends a panty-clad college co-ed skipping alone through the dark forest to an outhouse with a serial killer on the loose, or fails to acknowledge a bigger picture, a switch flips in my brain. I can no longer grant my time or attention. It’s not an intentional decision. It just happens.

Redemption

I felt the switch flip on Yellowstone, but sat with my husband as he faithfully devoured the next episode. That was when my one listening ear heard patriarch Dutton deliver redemptive musings on horse slaughter (and save my favorite show from purgatory).

In the scene, John Dutton (Kevin Costner in his most convincing and beautiful work) instructs Rip (Cole Hauser’s penultimate manly-man cowboy with soul as deep as the Grand Canyon) to find the hard-to-handle horse a home. He specified he did not want to see the horse in a slaughterhouse. Apparently Yellowstone showrunners know the sobering truth about America’s unwanted horses. More than 80,000 discarded souls ship to foreign slaughter every year, simply because their owners tire of them. 

The weathered and worn old rancher seemed to relate to the horse that nobody could use. Many horse rescuers sense parallels between used-up or useless souls and ourselves. Perhaps Yellowstone writers wanted us to see parallels between Dutton and that horse with too much buck to break, but not enough to be useful.

“He doesn’t deserve to die just because he doesn’t want to be ridden,” Dutton said. “Hell, I don’t want to be ridden.”

Authenticity and depth

People who feel thrown away after giving all they can give tend to connect to discarded creatures on an almost psychic level. Yellowstone does a masterful job of diving through the surface of every issue to the soul.

The brush with horse slaughter was just one of many examples of Yellowstone’s commitment to authenticity. They portray of the plight of America’s independent ranchers and farmers with grit, honesty and compassion. And they do it without a hint of political preaching. (Plus, the cinematography of Yellowstone is worth the 40-some minutes alone.)

Thank you, Yellowstone, for keeping it real.

(SPOILER ALERT: Rip winds up making a feel-good, though very Hollywood, decision.)

Indifferent no more

Four years ago, I would have glazed over the unwanted horse story line. I would never have considered what might happen to a horse no one could handle. I always loved the idea of horses. But, like too many wannabe and new owners, I had no idea what it took to have one.

Now, my life’s mission is to ensure everyone’s ears perk up when the lives of these amazing, sentient creatures are in peril; to inform prospective owners about the massive responsibility of horse ownership, and to choke off the slaughter pipeline at both ends.

You can help unwanted horses

Swingin’ D Horse Rescue is a 501c3 near Tulsa, Oklahoma that is committed to saving unwanted horses from the threat of slaughter, nursing them back to health, training and socializing them so they can be adopted to committed individuals who will care for them the remainder of their lives. We have rescued dozens of horses from the slaughter pipeline and rehabilitated even the most hopeless of souls.

We survive on the generous donations of friends who believe in our mission.