In the 1st at Belmont yesterday, Charge Into War “suffered an injury [and] was vanned off.” Typically, a mortal note. According to breeder/owner Bergen Stables, however, Charge underwent surgery at Cornell. Then, about an hour ago, this:
No compunction, no guilt – “fluke thing” – no shame. Vile people. Vile business.
Fluke thing is when my wife walks into the edge of the table. Not so much a fluke when she goes to the hospital with a broken limb because I beat her.
I have no words (that I can use here) for how disgusting this is. These people only put Charge Into War through surgery because there was a chance at further profits from him. And “come home and enjoy being a horse”? Please! Enjoy further exploitation and servitude is what you meant. Bergen Stables, we know what your rainbow bridge truly is – a landfill.
Horseracing is Animal Cruelty! It takes this incorrigible criminal mentality and activity to abuse and kill horses and take no responsibility for their own actions.
I agree with you, Patrick. These people are VILE PEOPLE engaged in a VILE BUSINESS. Deliberately causing the catastrophic injuries to horses and refusing to take responsibility for their own actions is extremely morally depraved.
When a horse is run to the point of heavy breathing and exhaustion, the horse must be walked out for at least 30 minutes and more like 45 minutes afterwards before anything else. If a horse suffers a broken leg or joint, there is no walking out and cooling off period. So a thinking person must ask, “What did the so-called veterinarians/ health professionals give the horse as a substitute for cooling out prior to surgery?” I don’t believe there is a shortcut or a substitute for the walking out/ cooling off period!!!! It’s a situation where the question “What could go wrong?” applies as far as the horse’s safety and health are concerned. The answer in a nutshell is “EVERYTHING!” of course!!!
These racetrack people need to be DEFUNDED and shutdown forever!!!! They should be charged, arrested and convicted. They should be in prison for a long, long time!!!!
A good hosing down, a big fan, or a ride in a trailer with the windows down serves exactly the same purpose, just as it does for humans. The difference is that a horse’s core temperature rises more rapidly than a human so it’s more important. You should also provide water because horses dehydrate quickly from sweating. The other part of walking is to prevent cramping after strenuous exercise but I doubt they were worried about that.
Alan, I don’t think they are capable of being concerned about that. The comfort of the horse is the least of their concerns. Most horses would be so overcome with fear and anxiety that it seems like they would have to give the horse a tranquilizer to keep him from thrashing around.
I’m sure that’s the first thing they did but the surgeon definitely needs a stable patient too.
Just watched the replay (not deleted as of now). Horse is #7 in the back of the pack. It looks to me watching the head-on the horse was hurt and was not pulled up. The bobbling looked like there was no way his leg could have sucessfully been repaired. And about the Rainbow Bridge which gives some comfort to us animal lovers, he is away from racing now doing what a horse should be doing far away from YOU.
I saw tweets that praised this stable for “always doing right by the horse”.
Seems to me the right thing would have been to NOT race a 3yo baby and pounding his body into the ground.
And, they admit that being at the racetrack is not enjoyable as a horse, as they said, had he survived, he “could enjoy being a horse”. How telling is that?!
Vile indeed.
I’ve read over a 100 tweets that prayed for this horse to survive -then to send prayers and condolences.
Hey pro racing jerks – isn’t it also telling that you guys are on twitter damn near every day praying for your athletes to SURVIVE?? Or “come home safe”?? Or condolences when one of your cronies kill one of their horses off??
Shouldn’t that give you a hint that your “sport” isn’t right?!
Marie, the racing folks and their fans are a special bunch – like the “Fans of Barbaro” who claim the dead colt is flying above the horses still racing, “protecting” them, Bergen Stables (Jerry and Sharlene Kenny) are having delusions, as well. Another of their racing slaves won a race around the time Charge Into War died – their tweet; “One’s future ended. Hours later, the other’s began. Maybe they are one now. Our hearts want to believe Gator’s win today was for – or with – Charger.”
Mr. and Mrs. Kenny, your dead horse isn’t racing anymore – alone or with any of your other horses. And you better keep praying for your equine slaves to “[finish] safe and sound”…better yet, let them all just “be a horse” and get them the hell off the track – your claims of love for them will ring a bit truer if you DECREASE the risks of their injury and death, not increase them.
Sure, everybody knows how enjoyable it is to have a major physical injury and then be disabled for the rest of your life. Being in pain and on prescription pain-killers for the rest of your life is such a picnic that every racetrack person should try it, because everybody knows how enjoyable that is.
I can’t say how demented and vile these people truly are!!! Their mentality is so, so, so twisted!!!
Reblogged this on Armory of the Revolution.
What I think is very possible is that they knew this horse, CHARGE INTO WAR, wouldn’t make it, but thought they would attempt to make it look like they cared to their demented “fans of racing” and it’s also possible that they could have “donated” the horse to surgery (the place of business where the surgery was performed) just so some inexperienced veterinary students could have a visual and/or a “hands-on” learning experience. You know how stupid it is that they would think that the horse could live through that much trauma…?!?!!!! It’s a no-brainer about how cruel this is to the horse!!!!
You might be shocked what horses can live through, the question is usually economics. My wife’s boss had a filly whose pastern turned to oatmeal when she stepped in a hole. He wanted to euthanize but my wife convinced him to let her try. Took about 3 months, a lot of creativity, and hard work but she recovered and became a very nice pasture decoration. Had to fabricate a walking shoe so she didn’t founder and change the cast twice a week so she didn’t slough tissue.
I hope the filly wasn’t being beaten and forced to run at top speed when she stepped in a hole.
Is it possible that they gave CHARGE INTO WAR more tranquilizer than he could recuperate from? I think it is possible that they had to give him a higher dose of tranquilizer to keep him from thrashing around under the circumstances.
Wanda, your questions all day sure make sense. I’m sure the elite vets aren’t working on Saturday night at 4:00 am. And the video to me shows the horse was not performing at top of the game either.
I’d like to see the toxicology report, but I know that is top secret. What drugs were administered to CHARGE INTO WAR before the race and after the injury/ies and before surgery, during surgery and after surgery…???? His heart could not take all of this!!!
Agree 100%
Of course she was, she was racing at some crap fair track in northern Michigan. I’ve seen them walk the tracks between races picking up the rocks.
Alan, I walked the Asotin County fair arena in Washington State myself in 1993 after the rodeo sponsors/organizers boasted about how great the condition of the arena ground was. You know they had to work the dirt with their equipment. But I saw several rocks the size of my fist and I even picked up a lot of them. I didn’t get them all and no one seemed to care or look that close. I was shocked and disappointed. I have often wondered about what it would be like to walk the racetracks where so many horses are forced to gallop!
Alan, bless your wife. Obvious there is a moral decency there and dedication to Mrs. vows taken when graduation happened. Another Dr. Pol!!!
Love how they threw that “NOT PRE-EXISTING” clause in there, as if there’s any way to know whether that’s in fact the case. Face it, creepy grievers: you’ve bred these babies to publicly and hideously have their bones snap, by forcing them — via drugs and whips — to defy the universal laws of physics.
And you wanna avoid all responsibility in his death by suggesting Charger’s injury was unavoidable? It was identical to the thousands of other racehorse breakdowns we’ve all witnessed. Of course it was pre-existing! Of course it was avoidable!
You subjected a pre-injured baby animal to the torment of the track, and tried to save face by doubling down on his suffering for the Thoughts & Prayers crowd within your shrinking populous.
So, tell us, Bergen Stables: Do you plan on admitting for your NEXT public breakdown death that your victim had been injured prior to the race? How about the next one after that?
Didn’t think so. It’s not a real pleasant admission to have to make — even for “unwitting” animal abusers.