I don't know how you felt about PETA lurching into an attack on jockey Gabriel Saez when the thoroughbred filly Eight Belles broke down and was euthanized after Saturday's Kentucky Derby. Personally, they reminded me of vultures circling fresh road kill. Not your relatively benign turkey vultures either. Turkey vultures are straightforward carrion eaters, pan handling the sky in search of convenient carrion. (Sort of like spare change only smellier.)

No, the notorious animal rights group brings to mind dreaded black vultures, which are quite likely to help creatures toward death in pursuit of menu enhancement. Woe unto unguarded lambs and weak calves when black vultures are around. They will pick them to pieces alive.

Which brings us to PETA picking on the 20-year-old jockey, who was said to be heartbroken at the death of his mount. There is plenty of debate about running fillies against stallions and geldings: questions about a spate of famous animals breaking down under the spotlight of public scrutiny; newer synthetic track surfaces, which may prevent some injuries; the extreme youth of Triple Crown contenders. Not to mention some discussion of heavy inbreeding to Native Dancer, a horse which some consider to have contributed to the perceived fragility of modern day thoroughbreds. In light of several recent breakdowns, many involved in thoroughbred racing are actively discussing these topics.

Andrew Beyer summarized it well in his article in Monday's Washington Post. He said, "In earlier eras, most people bred horses in order to race them, and they had a stake in the animals' soundness. By contrast, modern commercial breeders produce horses in order to sell them, and if those horses are unsound, they become somebody else's problem. Because buyers want horses with speed, breeders have filled the thoroughbred species with the genes of fast but unsound horses."

However, the ridiculous demand that Saez be suspended for something that happened after the race, when the filly was being galloped out, takes attention away from such legitimate concerns and places it on PETA's demands for change, which is just where that organization wants it.

The whole affair was very sad. Our family was certainly shocked by it, as both Alan and I had chosen Eight Belles as our favorite in the race. (Liz picked Big Brown weeks ago. I don't know what it is with her and picking racehorses, but she has a real knack for it.) Of course, it was her night off and Alan and I were milking, so we missed the actual race and the subsequent shocking ending.

However, we did have a personal encounter with a horse that seemed to be a tad overdriven just the other night. After the car's unexpected meeting of the deer-damage kind, I have been downright paranoid traversing the highway from here to Cobleskill. Thus the other night when Becky and I undertook a little shopping on the way home and ended up driving after dark, I was peering out through the windshield considerably more intently than might normally be the case.

Good thing, too. In the gloom before us I spotted something bobbing down the traffic lane. Clearly not a deer, but not a car either. It was just a little blob of vague color bouncing dimly in the darkness. I had to ponder what the heck I was seeing as we came closer to this thing in the road. It was plainly there and yet darned near invisible.

As we crept up behind it I finally realized what it was.

And that is when I got plumb aggravated. Now those of you in the know probably heard that I got a fix-it ticket for the deer-inflicted damage to the car's headlight. One low beam worked kind of intermittently after the rampaging ruminant flung itself into us and of course it was in the downswing of the working/not working cycle when I passed a deputy a couple of weeks ago.

We had it replaced and the story would have ended there. Except for how I felt when I passed (very carefully) the two Amish guys banging an exhausted standardbred down 30A about 30 miles an hour, in the dark, with no lights of any kind.

How did they get a pass on the laws governing vehicular traffic? The rest of us have to have all of our lights functioning, but they can drive in full darkness, right down the middle of the road. No lights; not even a conventional slow moving vehicle sign on their conveyance. Instead, they have a couple of little strips of white reflective material and a tiny red bit. Your average mailbox is more safely lit.

It made me plumb annoyed to think that they get a pass on traffic safety that way. Not only were they a danger to themselves racing down the road in the dark, they were also a danger to Becky and me and to every other car that had to maneuver around them that night. And there were plenty of them. Traffic isn't exactly light on a main state route like that.

Not to mention the poor horse. If America saw an animal in that state on television there would be an instant national uproar. As cars passed in the other direction, their headlights (yeah they all had 'em) clearly showed the animal bounding down the pavement as fast as it could trot, tongue hanging, sweat dripping, ribs heaving.

Where was PETA that night? There was a horse that clearly could use a break, but they aren't worried about him. (No national press attention I guess. Or perhaps they were busy with their own euthanasia business. According to the Center for Consumer Freedom, the organization puts to death more than 90 percent of the animals it takes in for a total of more than 19,200 between 1998 and 2007.)

And why do horse-drawn conveyances not have to be properly lit during the hours of darkness? They are hard enough to see in full daylight.

Fultonville dairy farmer MARIANNE FRIERS is a regular columnist.