Norman Chad is a respected sportswriter whose weekly column appears in The Washington Post, among other papers. The following ran in yesterday’s edition of the Post. Mr. Chad, we thank you.
Horse racing is dying. It should be dead. (Boy, do I hit the ground running with a sports humor column, or what?) I say this not in response to 22 horse fatalities at Santa Anita racetrack since Dec. 26, I say this because horse racing would not exist without the involuntary participation of its four-legged athletes.
They are now changing medication rules and reducing the use of the whip and examining track surfaces, but this is nothing more than shuffling deck chairs on the backstretch of a moribund industry. Besides being imperiled by other forms of gambling, horse racing should be felled by a simple, moral fact: It’s just plain wrong.
You might look out your bedroom window and disagree, but Couch Slouch would like to believe we have evolved as a culture. With our evolution comes the realization that other living beings — horses, dogs, lions, bass, even pigs — should not be used for our sport or entertainment, or, frankly, for our food.
What, you think Affirmed woke up every morning thinking, “Man, I want to kick Alydar’s butt on Saturday?” Don’t tell me these horses are bred to run; they are forced to run. They have no choice, like when my mother used to tell me to finish my chickpeas. (This happened as recently as two years ago.)
As a 9- or 10-year-old, I used to take my right foot and smash anthills I saw along the sidewalk; I am truly embarrassed by this. As a 39- or 40-year-old, I used to go to the racetrack and gamble on the ponies; I am truly embarrassed by this. And, now, as a 59- or 60-year-old — I’ve lost count of the birthdays — I finally know that animals deserve better treatment than as our play toys or prey targets.
So, please, no more sled dogs or show dogs. No more greyhounds or horses racing. No more cockfighting or dogfighting. No more elephants at the circus or orcas at SeaWorld. No more hunting and fishing. I’m not even sure we should lazily ride horseback on a country trail. Would you want to carry someone on your back for a half-hour? I’m a big Lone Ranger fan, but he should Uber to his next crime scene.
YOU SAID IT, Norman — it’s time —- way overdue — time to SHUT DOWN this INDUSTRY.
In response to Patrick’s article last week in The Washington Post written by President of The Jockey Club:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/horses-need-to-be-treated-better-but-scrapping-racing-entirely-isnt-the-answer/2019/10/13/4adcdc78-ec47-11e9-a329-7378fbfa1b63_story.html#comments-wrapper
Please read the article and leave a comment.
Yes, the JOCKEY CLUB president, of all people! – couldn’t the industry find a paid racing individual who at least supports the SAFE Act to try to refute Patrick’s truth? The Jockey Club does not support the SAFE Act! – while multi-thousands of discarded racehorses go to slaughter, the Jockey Club and their president turn away from THEIR horses begging for life!
Wow, that’s a whole shitload of ignorance packed into just a few paragraphs, although I do agree that the deaths of these horses was multifactorial: training and racing too young, drugging and doping, and confinement, and forced speed. (I have no idea why they think the amount of rain had anything to do with it – we all know it was actually the alignment of the planets that screws everything up). And could the drop of fatalities simply be because there are fewer horses being sent out to race? These racing industry bastards are just so desperate to hang onto this antiquated and abusive past time, yet they cannot and will not actually reform themselves, because treating their horses with care and dignity won’t make them money and more importantly, isn’t even something they care about.
THANK YOU NORMAN CHAD. keep speaking up, the horses need it