Ever wonder what happens to the thousands of horses that don’t make
the grade as good racers?
Here is the answer from Holly Cheever, DVM, who “…has been around
horses all her life, including race horses.”
In “Racing from Another Perspective: Experts' Statements about
Racing” Dr. Cheever states:
"The undeniable and inescapable problem with the thoroughbred
industry is that thousands of foals must be produced in order to develop
a few dozen good racers. The excess often meet with inhumane ends and
similarly, when race horses are no longer money-earning winners, they
too often end up neglected, abandoned, and starving at the hands of
uncaring owners, with their final end being the slaughterhouse. For
instance, a Kentucky Derby winner was slaughtered in Japan in 2004,
despite his spectacular win a decade earlier. The distressing fate of
the thousands of abused, neglected and abandoned horses in the United
States is recognized by the American Association of Equine Practitioners
— the world’s premiere equine veterinary organization — as its primary
and most pressing problem.”
“This purely economic motivation stands behind the racetrack saying
'A horse makes no money just standing in his stall.' Once they decide
that the horse does not have, or had exhausted, his race-winning
potential, they sell the horse to an equine auction, from where horses
are either sent to a slaughterhouse that ships horsemeat to the European
and Japanese market, or into a downward spiral of abuse at the hands of
new owners who may think they would like a retired racehorse, but forget
about horses’ longevity and the expense necessary to maintain them
properly.”
Such abuses will continue and flourish until the establishment of
legal rights for other animals.
From
www.Chai-online.org
http://chai-online.org/en/campaigns/racing/campaigns_racing_experts.htm
See also:
http://www.all-creatures.org/adow/index.html
http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/horse.html
