Somewhere, far out of sight if not entirely out of mind, countless other former racehorses were on their way to being slaughtered.
“I struggle with it,” Diana Koebel said. She is the owner and trainer here at LumberJack Farm, one of hundreds of horse farms around the country helping rescue and rehabilitate thoroughbreds considered too slow or damaged to be worth anything more than horse meat. The rescuers cannot keep up.
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About 15 percent of the American horses slaughtered, horse advocates said, are thoroughbreds. Many are only a few years old but considered too broken to race and, therefore, to live.
“But there is a lot of life left,” the ReRun president, Laurie Condurso-Lane, said. Horses can live to 30 years or longer. “They are young. So why not find them new jobs?”
The spotlight that shines on horse racing during the Triple Crown events each spring rarely illuminates the shadows. The sport is usually painted with bright, pastoral backdrops. Winners of the biggest races become royalty, revered by people and seemingly destined for a pampered life doing little but producing more runners like them.
But most racehorses run a far different route — downward, slipping from rung to rung in the sport’s hierarchy. Some are traded a dozen or more times as their earnings fade, until someone decides that the horse is no longer worth the time and money to keep it.
It even happened to Ferdinand, the 1986 Kentucky Derby winner, who reportedly was slaughtered in Japan for pet food a few years ago.
More at Saving Horses, One Thoroughbred at a Time
4 comments:
Hi akubi,
Yes, there is a seedy underside to horse racing. Cheating is rampant, abuse. You don't hear about it often, but it happens every day. Horses are drugged, beaten, neglected, tortured with electricity, abused, and outright killed. There are insurance scams, racing scams, veterinary scams, substance scams, the list is endless. I handicapped horse racing for many years, the things I saw would shock and dismay you. Most trainers have no conscience, and most owners are even worse. Don't get me started on the jockeys. I quit subsidizing them some time ago. The cheating got so bad I couldn't take it. Let's put it this way, it got almost as bad as Wall Street.
The June 7 Belmont Stakes is the only 1 1/2 -mile race in this country restricted to 3-year-olds. It is unlikely that any horse in the field will race that far again. Arthur said that is one difference from foreign racing, where breeding leans more toward durability.
Another major difference involves doping. Horses may run at North American tracks 24 hours after being given therapeutic drugs such as Lasix or Butazolidin. (Lasix is a diuretic that treats bleeding and reduces blood pressure; Butazolidin, or Bute, is an analgesic and anti-inflammatory drug.) Such doping is banned everywhere outside of North America. Critics say these drugs can mask injuries and contribute to breakdowns.
If drugs aren't allowed among human U.S. athletes who have a choice in the matter, how is it OK to drug race horses? I don't get it.
...how is it OK to drug race horses? I don't get it.
They run so hard that they bleed into their lungs. Trainers, being the unscrupulous bunch that they are, aren't going to let that get in the way of the winner's circle.
I may have told you the derby was for two year olds, that should be three year olds, a fact which I'm sure you are aware of by now.
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