Horse Racing: 5,000 Euthanized in Five Years and Counting
One outraged woman’s editorial.
Comments (7)|23 Liked It
“5,000 Horses Euthanized Since 2003”
If you aren’t appalled by this headline, then you aren’t paying attention. According to recent news reports, thousands of horses are being injured on the racetracks of America and have had to be euthanized in the last five years.
In my last horse racing article, Horse Racing: A Truly Green Sport, I questioned how this could continue to happen.
In this article I wrote,” A racing horse is truly an awesome and inspiring creature. They are massive beasts of both beauty and grace. Their large bodies effortlessly carried by four slim legs. But the legs of these magnificent beasts are most vulnerable. We witnessed this year at the Kentucky Derby, that the limbs of a race horse can be very fragile.”
One of the current racing investigations is supposedly centered on how a race horse is bred for speed and the bones in its legs are therefore more fragile. Fragile bones break and a horse with a broken bone have to be euthanized, as keeping it lying down for treatment impounds the problem. For if a horse lies down for too long they can get a condition called “laminitis” which is a hoof infection from inadequate blood flow in the
injured leg. The race horse Barbero had this condition and he eventually had to be euthanized in spite of the efforts made to rehabilitate him.
We all know that horse racing is a sport dominated by the very rich in our society. How many people out there can afford to even own a race horse? You may sit with your beach
chair in the infield to watch the race, but face it, you are not going to make the money off the ponies in the quantities that the owners do. You can stretch out in the cheap seats
and allow the booze to numb your senses but you are not even close to being in the winner’s circle.
In my last article, “Horse Racing: A Truly Green Sport” I pointed out many of the concerns that are just now coming to light in the media and are finally gaining attention. The article was and still is my opinion. Interestingly enough, I was continually insulted by a “so called” horse racing fan when my piece was originally published. This cyber bully’s goal was nothing but a coward’s attempt to intimidate me and silence my voice on the inhuman aspects of horse racing. Have other voices been silenced?
What about the supposed “investigation” into horse racing after Eight Belles was euthanized at the Kentucky Derby? Did someone silence that too and now suddenly again it appears in the media after the loss of Big Brown last week at Belmont?
The Jockey Panel even got into the investigation act and surprise, surprise isn’t revealing
much. The owners after all do sign the jockey’s paycheck. What power do the jockeys even have? Isn’t the money involved intimidation enough?
How about steroid use in race horses? We all know it enhances the feats of human athletes. Did it help Big Brown to win the Derby and the Preakness? Did it hinder Big Brown at the Belmont going without it?
One major reason why previous investigations never materialized with much more than a slap of a crop was due to the fact that horse racing is big business and makes a lot of money.
Sure other major sporting events make millions of dollars too like the World Series and the Super Bowl. The only difference is that no creature is being euthanized, nor would it be accepted as a normal part of the sport.
. Can you imagine the uproar and protests if any other professional sport allowed its players to be euthanized? Wouldn’t it create more controversy than the “wardrobe malfunction” at the Super Bowl a few years ago?
Back then, Janet Jackson was exposed in her womanly form and the outcry was immense. No one was killed and yet it was worse somehow, we all viewed a female breast live at Super Bowl halftime!
Yet just last month, we witnessed Eight Belles being euthanized on the track at the Kentucky Derby and did anyone even bat an eyelash?
What kind of “investigation” is exactly being conducted here anyway? Will the findings be swept under the rug, go away for a while and then business will be conducted as usual? How long before this story too disappears from the headlines?
If you aren’t disgusted and outraged by the now routine slaughter of these 5,000
magnificent racing horses in the last five years, then either you aren’t paying attention or the sun and beer is permeating your brain as your lounge in your infield beach chair holding your bloodied ticket stub in your sunburned hand.
7 Comments
It is a complete farce and outrage that this supposed” investigation” is conducting.
…hi, I love horses and actually, horse
)
racing scares me when I watch, because
I am always afraid for the horses, that
something will happen. You have to think,
if it took this long for those in power,
to outlaw the use of steroids on the horses,
then any investigation, will be papered over,
and put on a shelf. Sadly, money rules.
Take care. Why didn’t you sign your name?
http://www.socyberty.com/quiet+voice.8137 Thank
you. p.s. nicely written article
Where did you get your facts on the number of horses euthanized since 2003? Truly shocking statistic.
Also Yahoo search “5000 horses euthanized since 2003″ and there is an entire page of sources.
Big Brown’s trainer will not appear today at the House hearing on the safety of thoroughbred racing. Seems he has a virus and can’t travel. The Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection had been looking forward to hearing from him. Sounds like this committee will not resolve anything.
I’d like to say, when it comes to steroid use, there have been multiple bans enacted in the last few weeks; just the other day, the Breeders’ Cup (the biggest event in horse racing) declared that the trainer of any horse found running on steroids would not be eligible to enter horses for the next year’s event. That might not seem that big, but trust me, it’s huge. Everyone’s getting in on it. Steroids will soon be extinct.
The problem is, the Thoroughbred industry (actually, the horse industry in general) is extremely traditional. This is the industry I’m making my career in, and believe me, horsemen don’t like change. You can see catalogs of equipment from a hundred years ago, and most of the things in there are exactly the same things we’re using today. Change comes slowly. Eight Belles was far from the first horse to be euthanized on live television; George Washington was put down at the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Classic, Pine Island was put down in the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Distaff, Fleet Indian suffered a career-ending injury in the same race. Barbaro shattered his leg in the 2006 Preakness. Charismatic fractured his leg in the final strides of the 1999 Belmont. Ruffian and Go For Wand, two of the best known fillies of the century, suffered fatal injuries in major, televised races. The thing is, now people are beginning to realize that what we’ve written off as an unfortunate fact of life doesn’t have to be that way. It’s changing. It’s very slow, but it is, and I’m hopeful it will continue to change.
My mom turned to me when we watched the Derby, and we found out that Eight Belles was euthanized, and she asked me, “Why do you want to work in an industry where this happens?” I looked at her and I said, “Because I want to change it.” I’m not the only one. The industry will change. I am a member of the generation that is rising to power in it now, and things will change.
I agree with this article and while I respect the former comment’s sincerity, I am doubtful that things will change for the benefit of horses anytime soon. While it may be true that horse racing is a very traditional sport, the major force is money.
Good article.