California Activists Hold Vigil for Santa Anita Dead

This past Sunday, Heather Wilson, Amanda Lunn, and Ron McGill organized a vigil for the 27 (now 28) horses who have died at Santa Anita Park since Christmas. We were honored to have Heather read – with unflinching strength and inspiring passion – a prepared statement from us. Thank you, Heather, Amanda, Ron, and to all who came out.

Today, we remember the 27 horses who have been sacrificed at this track since Christmas. But we must not – cannot – lose sight of the greater carnage. To wit:

The over 500 racehorses who have died here at Santa Anita in just the past decade.

The over 5,000 racehorses who have died at all California tracks since 1998.

The 2,000 racehorses who will be killed at tracks across America this very year –

the pulmonary hemorrhages
the blunt-force head traumas
the imploded hearts
the snapped necks
the crushed spines
the ruptured ligaments
the shattered legs
the protruding bones
the blood-soaked dirt
the vans
the carcass pits
the disposal trucks
the pain
the fear
the terror

Then, of course, let us not forget the 15,000 or more who will be shackled, hung upside-down, slashed, bled-out, and butchered this year at Horseracing’s singular retirement facility – the slaughterhouse.

Today we say with crystal clarity – No More. No more abusing unformed bodies; no more extreme, relentless confinement; no more whipping; no more drugging and doping; no more buying and selling and trading and dumping. No more auctions, no more kill-buyers, no more transport trucks, no more abattoirs. No more maiming and destroying. No more pain and suffering. No more. End Horseracing. Now.

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