From state necropsy reports:
Arizona
“Proximal sesamoid fractures may carry an occurrence rate as high as 41.5% in racing Thoroughbreds. Approximately 80% of all forelimb proximal sesamoid fractures are biaxial (both the lateral and medial sesamoid bones are fractured). Racing puts excessive force on suspensory ligament attachments to the proximal aspect of these bones, and creates the condition of fetlock joint hyperextension, predisposing this location to injury.”
“The sesamoid bones are commonly fractured in racehorses, as this joint can hyperextend and the sesamoids hit the ground with a high impact force.”
“Carpal bone injuries are relatively common findings in racehorses [and] are thought to be a consequence of repetitive impact trauma associated with fast exercise and training.”
“Humeral fractures occur in racing animals as catastrophic failure or accumulation of stress and microfractures.”
“Exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage is a common finding in racehorses.”
“Chronic ulcers [are] a common finding in racehorses, mostly attributed to stress, high grain diet, and higher use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.”
California
“Mild-to-moderate injuries of the suspensory apparatus have been positively associated with mechanical fatigue associated with repetitive activities (overextension), and consequently increased risk for catastrophic injuries.”
“Up to 90% of racehorses [have] gastric ulcers; factors that increase the likelihood of ulcers: stall confinement, stress, NSAIDs.”
“Streptococcus zooepidemicus is the most common bacteria isolated from cases of pneumonia in racehorses. Some predisposing factors such as restraint during transportation, specifically when the animals are unable to lower their heads, impedes the correct clearance of oronasal secretions leading to bacterial colonization. Other environmental factors for bacterial pneumonia include high dust load and poor ventilation.”
Maryland
“Microdamage occurs because of repetitive, high magnitude loads during training and racing.”
New Jersey
“Laminitis and coronitis are common, painful conditions of [race]horses, resulting in the separation of the epidermal laminae from the underlying basement membrane of the dermal laminae of the hoof.”
Pennsylvania
“Score lines and bruising in front fetlocks are suggestive of repetitive osseous stress syndrome, a common finding in fetlocks of racing Thoroughbreds.”
Gosh, I wonder why we never get this information from the one source who’s most responsible for putting it out there: you know, the always-journalistic RACING PRESS?? Guess the “reporters” at PRPR (Public Relations Paulick Report), BloodyHorse, TDN (Thoroughbred Death News), HR
…HRN, DRF, et al., are too busy generating all that massive public interest in “growing the game.”
Yeah, there’s nothing young people want to get into more than a barbaric, life-wasting blood sport that turns them into addicts — with the added bonus of killing thousands of “beloved equine athletes.
Grow that game, you sick freaks.
This information being documented by the respective states from necropsy reports is valuable information to support the termination of subsidies as well as any and all other types of government-directed benefits to the horse racing industry.
Would the Governor of Arizona be interested in knowing that racing two-year-olds and every other age of Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse is the equivalent of willful Felony Animal Cruelty that should not be financially supported by state taxpayer dollars??? (The same goes for everyone else involved in the legislative process in every state.)
Stop all tax breaks to multi-millionaires and billionaires who dabble in the racing and wagering industry. Horse racing is deliberate abuse of horses.
These reports spell out that no horse should be subjected to competitive racing of any kind and training for same, and that all transportation needs to be minimal and reconstructed with the horse’s health foremost in design. Wow. In reading your posts, Patrick, we have come to know all harmful and horrible results of these harms perpetrated on horses, yet these details here are still so informational. Stop death to horses by death to horse racing!!!
We must end the racing of horses! This is the only way to stop the abuse and deaths of these precious horses.
Alot of these horses racing are not even two years old according to their real birthday. Do away with all horses are same age in January and quit racing babies.
Horseracing is selfish, greedy, and cruel in it’s very nature.
This list, along with the pics. should be posted on every politicians entry door – those who vote to support and handout millions in subsidies to keep this freak show going.’
Sure the gamblers play a part, but there hasn’t been enough gambling bets to financially sustain this business in years.
Most people who only gamble on the slot machines have no idea that a percentage of their money is going to support horse racing and most communities don’t even know.
So our elected politicians created a horse racing taxpayer funded ATM machine, so to speak, that just keeps pumping out the money to support this never ending money and killing pit paid for by you and me.
Their “jobs, jobs, jobs,” mantra is usually 1% or less of any states GDP – hardly enough to justify the obscene amount of money that horse racing receives and certainly less enough to shut it down.
So sad that countless racehorses continue to die on their tracks and at their “retirement” homes which is a slaughterhouse floor and that this alone is not enough to shut down this horror show.