When did rejection based on appearance become OK?

I haven’t been very shy about arguing that people should not put themselves above animals.

Unless horsemen are willing to submit to a written evaluation of their physical flaws, they should not subject horses to it.

Similarly, unless dog owners are willing to be evaluated up and down, they should not place their dog under such scrutiny.

And that’s not even addressing the topic of forcing animals to adhere to human-written breed standards.

So, let’s turn the tables on Connemara inspectors for a second.

Much as I’d like to evaluate the inspector who insulted my stallion, my impression of her looks is immaterial.

How do these inspectors feel about themselves?

Last time I checked, none were gearing up to enter a beauty pageant because most people don’t want that kind of scrutiny.

How would the inspectors feel if a group of three people with various motives got together with clipboards and walked around them very slowly, studying their nose, ears, neck, arms, chest, waste, hips, thighs, knees, calves and feet very, very closely, and then this threesome wrote down a list of the inspectors’ flaws that would either garner them a passing or failing grade? How would they like to be subjected to this evaluation in front of a crowd? And how would they like it if they failed and everyone knew it?

How would they like it if those who passed such an inspection, when they themselves failed, had their names printed in a magazine over and over, and they were left out?

Yeah, it would feel exactly like grade school all over again. It would feel like bullying, because that is exactly what it is.

If it were videotaped, it might look something like the 10-minute video of the four stupid teenagers bullying bus monitor Karen Klein, 68, in New York in June 2012. Those teens have been suspended with more punishment to come. Is anyone punishing inspectors for the same behavior, though admittedly with fewer four-letter words? Inspections are passing judgment based on appearance, pure and simple.

I’m still waiting for someone to justify to me why inspections are morally right.

In the meantime, I keep hearing those catchy lyrics of Taylor Swift’s anti-bullying song, “Why you gotta be so mean?”