Horseracing
Wrongs
April 2018
So in addition to diverting funds that could be used for the public good to the archaic business of horseracing, the commonwealth is also sanctioning the killing of beautiful, intelligent, sensitive creatures – and all for nothing more than $2 bets.
Earlier this month, The Philadelphia Inquirer ran an editorial criticizing the subsidization of the Pennsylvania horseracing industry. Good, yes. Unfortunately, it did not go nearly far enough.
So, in the interest of presenting the full picture, I wrote a letter to the editor, to which I received no reply. Thus, I publish it here:
I would like to thank you for your recent editorial decrying the
corporate welfare to the Pennsylvania horseracing industry. As the founder
and president of Horseracing Wrongs, a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to
ending horseracing in America, I am certainly aware of this sadly
under-reported issue. As you so accurately point out, racing is indeed in
decline; the subsidies propping up Keystone State tracks is an
all-too-common theme across the country. Here in New York, for instance, it
is no exaggeration to say that without the largess from Video Lottery
Terminals, all seven harness tracks and likely two of the state’s four
Thoroughbred tracks would have been shuttered by now. But there is another
element to this story – that is, the moral one.
In each of the past three years, I have placed FOIA requests with the
Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture seeking information on racehorse
deaths. What I have found, and reported – in gruesome detail – on my
website, is that from 2015-2017, 290 horses died on or at Pennsylvania
racetracks. 290. (Nationally, I estimate that there are over 2,000
track-related kills every year.) And that’s almost surely understated, as
countless other “catastrophically injured” horses are euthanized back at
private farms or after being acquired by rescue groups. Even worse, scores
more (indeed, most) of the “retired” are brutally and violently slaughtered
once this industry deems them expended. So in addition to diverting funds
that could be used for the public good to an archaic business, the
commonwealth is also sanctioning the killing of beautiful, intelligent,
sensitive creatures – and all for nothing more than $2 bets.
Sensibilities on animal matters are clearly changing: Ringling is dead,
SeaWorld, owing mostly to the movie “Blackfish,” is desperately hanging on,
and greyhound racing is on life support (currently being kept alive by, you
guessed it, subsidies). End the welfare, yes. But also end the exploitation;
end the cruelty; end the killing.
End horseracing.
Patrick Battuello
Founder/President, Horseracing
Wrongs
New York