In a race at Evangeline June 17, Babe Reed was “distanced after losing contact with the field, jogged across while hopelessly beaten.” His people – owner Lori Culotta, trainer Ray Culotta – also had him “For Sale” prior to. Apparently, even with a cheap tag ($5,000), there were no takers. Then, just four days later, this post appeared:
While it looks as though Babe avoided the butcher’s knife, the larger point remains: “Responsible aftercare” is a lie; most (thousands annually) spent racehorses land in equine hell – the slaughterhouse – at career’s end. This alone should be enough for all Americans of good conscience to repudiate this vile industry once and for all.
I hope it is true that BABE REED is safe! There were two other horses in this same race that stopped. LOUISIANA TRIP and TDZ WHAT A DREAM both stopped and one jogged and one walked across the finish line. I expect them to be Missing In Action. They were all $5,000 claimers in this race.
The chartwriter’s line of saying BABE REED was “hopelessly beaten” is a damning statement. It could mean that the jockey whipped the horse mercilessly and/or it could mean the horse had lost the race and had no chance of winning. I guess it would be obvious after losing contact with the rest of the field of horses, stopping and jogged across the finish line that he had no chance of winning the race.
Those slaughterhouse pictures………I started crying when I saw them.
How did these horse’s pass a vets pre-race exam. Is it incompetence or corruption? or a whole lotta both. This is truly a disgrace that such incompetent people are allowed to have the power to determine the fate of these horse’s.Those horse’s did not just go lame during the running of this race. If these jurisdictions are going to be allowed to run race’s shouldn’t they be competent or morally responsible to determine if these horse’s ate fit to race.Between the OWNERS,the VETS and the TRAINERS. No one has the intelligence or the moral compass to do the right thing
The racetracks and betting venues pay the track vets to pass horses to race that are on the verge of breakdowns. The goal is to fill races and provide more betting “opportunities” to gamblers. At the same time, the Stronach Group is raking in the WAGERING HANDLE revenue. In horseracing, horses are being EXPLOITED as gambling chips for the purpose of making huge amounts of money. If a gambling chip gets broken, “it” can be replaced as far as the Stronach Group or anyone else making millions of dollars through gamblers placing bets on horses are concerned. If horsemanship and competency were true concerns in horseracing, that would be the end of horseracing.
I don’t know about all states Wanda but the state vet is usually the vet responsible for enforcing the rules and making sure horses are fit to race, not the track vet.
I know that. I read about a racetrack that hired a dog and cat veterinarian to pass horses to race.
It’s a crappy job, if you have a vet degree they’ll hire you.
From Dr. Sid Gustafson (a novelist and equine veterinarian who specializes in thoroughbred sports medicine/equine behavior and practiced regulatory veterinary medicine) in June, 2019;
“Regulatory vets become puppets to management. You lose your job if you scratch too many horses not fit to race.”
Absolutely. Plus, even the betting public knows where the crippled “rats” end up, so the vets at those tracks absolutely know most of those poor horses are duct taped together and are running sore. They just hope most stay upright while racing so they don’t end up looking too shitty with too many breakdowns, breakdowns that the public is starting to notice.
Regulatory vets are just one more sham in a criminal organization, if they do their jobs they lose their jobs!!!
As for after care, one need only visit auctions , kill pens and the slaughter-bound trucks to se how well that works!!
Way too many discarded racers and breeding stock day after day. It is never ending. The majority of people who step up for these doomed horses have nothing to do with racing except to try to mitigate the horrendous cruelty perpetrated by this gambling business.
Racing turns its back on the horses that would not exist but for racing
as they stand in the worst conditions waiting to be beaten and prodded onto the slaughter-bound trucks…
“Freedom” without responsibility never works. Racing is free to race these horses but where is the responsibility?!
Same here, Rebecca…SAME HERE…Unthinkable cruelty.
When I look at this horse, Babe Reed, my heart aches. He’s beautiful and I’m so very glad he escaped the unthinkable. I pray he’s now in kind, loving hands and will be treasured and loved forever. Horse-racing is hell and lies through it’s demonic teeth. There is NO SUCH THING AS AFTER-CARE!
ladypurr9, I hope he is, too. And not to be a wet blanket but the reality of rescued horses from killpens is not always horses that have been taken in by their loving and forever homes. Even individuals that I believe are well-meaning place these horses into “homes” that end up neglecting and even starving these poor horses – to death. A recent incidence is (once again) proof of that. I even privately questioned the “rescuer” regarding the home/foster chosen to send many bailed killpen horses to and was curtly told the individual was a wonderful home and the horses were “checked on” (and THAT via phone calls, texts, emails – like that’s adequate!) – then I was blocked. That wonderful home starved the horses and some, to death.
Yes, aftercare is a joke. Even programs supported by the industry are constantly begging for funds from the general public – how’s that when the industry is a multi-BILLION dollar one that claims to love their horses? Additionally, there are some racing-employed individuals who boast about how many racehorses they place (done racing for a variety of reasons) – one claims she places 500 a year and in doing so states that this is the industry taking care of its horses. I’d like to know how she follows up on that many horses – we know damn well she doesn’t. But when some of those horses show up in a killpen a year or more down the road, it’s never the fault of racing. BS – the ONLY way to ensure your horse is safe is to KEEP your horse…and of course that’s not what the industry does.
Joy, I have heard horror stories about horses that were supposedly rescued as well. Some people use the horses to get people to donate money for this or that, something that the horse needs to keep him/her healthy, etc. In reality, the person who is supposedly giving the horse a “loving home” is keeping the horse in a barn or stall and not feeding them, letting the horse literally starve, while they are receiving money donated to provide for the horse. That is how some people operate. They live off the generosity of people that truly want to help the horse but can’t necessarily have the horse in their possession. It’s evil.
Yes, and it’s so frustrating that people blindly follow and support.
I agree with Rebecca that seeing those pictures of the horses in the slaughterhouse can make a person want to cry. This is no place for horses. Horse racing must end. Horses deserve to be loved and treated as members of the family.
Reblogged this on Armory of the Revolution.
It just another gambling, using animals, bloody business. The only difference is, it’s ‘glamorized’ for the public in the press. As opposed to dog racing, dog fighting, cock fighting. It’s the way bullfighting is glamorized w the killer dressed in a skin tight leotard costume. But horseracing is the ugliest since none of those other animals have to face the terror of death in a slaughterhouse. Even the bull is carted there already dead.