5/31/2023 0 Comments Horae racing![]() PETA is working hard to tackle horse-racing cruelty. And despite these staggering numbers, the racing industry continues to churn out nearly 20,000 Thoroughbred foals annually. are trucked to Canada and Mexico and slaughtered each year. An estimated 10,000 “unprofitable” or simply unwanted Thoroughbreds from the U.S. A horse named Who’s Bluffing was claimed 12 times in his career-including three times by the same owner.īecause no one individual is committed to a horse throughout his or her lifetime, each day brings new uncertainty for these animals. In a two-month period in 2011, over 2,000 horses were callously sold through claiming races. ![]() Some races, called claiming races, allow for horses to be purchased and taken away by a new owner immediately after the race, giving previous owners little control over where horses end up. Ownership turnover is rampant, and most Thoroughbreds are bought or “claimed” multiple times during their careers. Treated Like CommoditiesĪs most owners and trainers have little more than a short-term financial interest in horses, there is little continuity and accountability over Thoroughbreds’ lifetimes, leaving them to suffer terribly. In 2015, in New York alone, more than 250 Thoroughbreds endured injuries or fatal breakdowns during races. Not surprisingly, every week, an average of 24 horses experience fatal breakdownsat racetracks across the country, and this number doesn’t even take into account the horses who are discarded by the racing industry when they’re no longer considered profitable. In an attempt to decrease the bleeding, many horses are given a drug called Lasix or Salix, a diuretic with performance-enhancing qualities. Many horses-fittingly called “bleeders” by the racing industry-will bleed from their lungs, a condition known as exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage. Pushed beyond their limits, most horses are subjected to cocktails of legal and illegal drugs intended to mask injuries and artificially enhance performance. Months later, jockey Roman Chapa-who was previously suspended for using a nail on a horse-was charged with a felony for race-fixing after using a shocking device during a race. In 2013, PETA documented that top trainers and jockeys admitted to having used illegal electro-shock devices on horses. At a 2008 race, the horse named Appeal to the City hemorrhaged around her eye when jockey Jeremy Rose “engaged in extreme misuse of the whip.” During his Kentucky Derby win, American Pharoah was struck with a whip at least 32 times by jockey Victor Espinoza. Whip use is standard practice in the U.S., with little more than lip service handed out to extreme violators in most states. ![]() Horses used for racing are forced to sprint-often under the threat of whips and even illegal electric-shocking devices-at speeds so fast that they frequently sustain injuries and even hemorrhage from the lungs.
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