Kayla Jordan
8GPTA
Homework 5B
Notes on:
“The Horse Racing Industry: Drugs, Deception, and Death”
http://www.peta.org/issues/Animals-in-Entertainment/the-horseracing-industry-drugs-deceptionand-death.aspx
Introduction:
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Race at more than 30 miles per hour
Drug abuse, injuries, race fixing, and slaughter houses
The Starting Gate:
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Purchased by syndicates (groups of members- vet, trainers, handlers, veterinarians,
jockeys)
 Horse cannot develop a bond with a certain person
 No place to call home- always traveling
 Most due not end up in the big time
o Do the horses ever become close with others?
Racing to the Grave
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Racing when their skeletal systems are still growing
Unprepared to handle a hard track
700-800 racehorses die every year
Horses are raced with fractures and strained tendons
Horses do not handle surgery well
 Disoriented coming out of anesthesia
 Fight casts/slings causing more destruction to be done
Some horses are euthanized if their injury forbids them from racing (euthanized: put to
sleep painlessly)
Horses auctioned off at 2 years old at a “Under Tack Show”
 Horses are forced into running 1/8 of a mile at faster speeds than they would ever
run in a race
 Some horses spook and bolt- injuring themselves for a life time
(http://www.peta.org/b/thepetafiles/archive/2011/09/09/peta-investigation-deadlyhorse-trials.aspx)
 Equine veterinarian Dr. Sheila Lyons, who has been featured on the cover of The
Blood-Horse magazine, writes: "Pushing these immature 2-year-old horses for
speed before they have reached physical and mental maturity is recklessly
dangerous and systematically damaging for the animal while also proving to be
unreliable for the prospective buyers as a predictor of future racing ability."
 Horse Racing is like stocks
 Injured horses are either sent to a pasture to suffer or sent to be destroyed
o What are vets doing to stop them from racing at a young age?
o What bone is most affected by racing?
Drugs and Deception
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Horses become addicted to the drug when trainers and vets give them it to race
 “Finding an American racehorse trained on the traditional hay, oats, and water
probably would be impossible,” commented one reporter
What are the consequences to using drugs?
What do vets do about his problem?
Are there drugs that are legal in some states but not others?
Do people admit to using the drugs?
Even the Winners Lose
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No race horses are pampered by someone who loves them
Alydar
 Insurance scandal coasted him his life
 Came in second place at in the Triple Crown
 Believed to have shattered his leg kicking a stall door
 10 years later and FBI investigation proved that he was tied by a rope to a truck
 1,348 horses sent to slaughter (58 known racehorses)
 Ferdinand
 Derby Winner and Horse of the Year in 1987
 “Disposed of” in Japan
 Sent straight to a slaughter house
 Million Dollar race horse winner was slaughtered in Sweden
(http://www.peta.org/tv/videos/graphic/69553693001.aspx)
o Are there any organizations that stop this?