Horse Racing in the media spotlight
May 9, 2008 by Daniel Beatty DVM · 2 Comments
With the death of Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby following on the heels of Barbaros death last year and here locally about the deaths happening at Arlington Park two years ago, horse racing is in the media spotlight and not in a favorable light. Three years of bad publicity may just force some changes in the industry.
There are many reasons for horses not to be racing at 2 years of age. The main one is that the skeletal structure of the horse is still growing and is incapable, in the majority of cases, to handle the stresses that racing places on the it. As for why horses race at 2 years of age, I have yet to hear a good reason that they have to race at that age. Obviously the industry has big money and investments are made. Having a horse wait another year or two before it possibly starts making a return increases the risk of the investment and slows the business of racing dramatically. Also traditionally horses have been raced at this age for many many years. So are these good enough reasons to continue racing at 2 years of age? Personally I do not think so.
As for is horse racing inhumane? I do not believe so and heres my reason..horse love to run, it comes naturally to them. If you have ever ridden a horse, especially one such as a thouroughbred, they love to go and they love to go fast. Interestingly, many of them actually love to race, they are not forced into it, they really want to do it. Ask any jockey or horseman that has been around the racing industry for even a short amount of time, they know when a horse just is not into it. They know if the horse really does not like it, that horse is not going to win and will be removed from racing very quickly. Now this does not mean that all of racing is humane. I believe some things need to be changed such as the age at which they are allowed to race needs to be raised. More turnout should be allowed, more rest and recovery needs to occur, and less pharmaceutical enhancements.
What do you think? Leave a comment let us know your opinion.
Heres a couple of other opinions from the web…
Talk Back: Racing Breakdown – The death of Eight Belles at last Saturday’s Kentucky Derby has spurred a national debate over horse racing and the safety and welfare of the animals (NPR’s Tom Ashbrook led a discussion of the contrasting perspectives on Wednesday’s …
The dark side of horse racing, redux – In yet another puff piece over the weekend celebrating Presque Isle Downs racetrack -a salutary run-down on the abbreviated 25-day first season of horse-racing – the Erie Times-News trumpeted the track’s financial and related successes …
I agree 100% horses at the age of 2 are not ready to race or do a lot of other things, that we expect at such an early age, they are not a commodity unfortuately money espects fast returns, be it race hores or in the show ring eg; futurities, for cow work/ reining etc. I would like to see authorities here (AUS) take heed of what is happening in your contry, as the last couple of weeks here similar things have happened as well as time ago.I pray somebody will start to do something about this, let the babies grow
I second all your desires for racing. The time for change is long overdue. In an age when so many people spend more money on their pets than they do themselves, I think the racing industry would fare well publicly & financially if they went the humane route. I’d be willing to bet on sizable public support for choosing to insist on higher standards for both their horses and jockeys.
I might add a couple to the “wishlist”:
~Industry-wide standards of ethics which is updated to reflect the more humane requirements and strictly enforced.
~Safer synthetic racing surfaces.
~Industry sponsored “post-racing” retirement fund to support rehabilitation/re-homing centers for horses when they are finished racing. (As opposed to slaughter) A small “tax” or fee could be added to each racing registration, bet, and purse (similar to what we do here in Nevada gaming that funds school expansion)
~And when all these things are accomplished, I would like to see whips eliminated. When I worked for Monty Roberts (who is an advocate for non-violent training/racing) he did a (non-formal) study of horses in speed sports and the outcome when whips were/were not used. As you can guess the horses who were whip-free ran faster, mainly because their attention was not diverted to the painful area everytime the whip made contact and they were free to focus on the task at hand. One of the coolest results we ever saw was at a US Barrel Racing Championship and both of the top finishers in youth and adult were whip free and boy did those horses ever run! Oddly enough their week long performances were much more fluid as well. I’d love to see someone do a formal study to disprove the theory that whips=speed.