It is, of course, not hard to find instances of the horse people embarrassing themselves. Take Monmouth Park for example. Last year, the New Jersey track made headlines for being the first in the nation to “ban” the use of whips. (I put ban in quotes because the jockeys still carried them, but ostensibly only for “safety” reasons.) Now, that ban has been rescinded so that, the Racing Commission explains, Monmouth will be aligned with upcoming national rules – six strikes per race, no more than two in succession before giving horse “a chance to respond” – governed by the “Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority.” So where’s the embarrassment? Well, here’s how Monmouth announced the change (no, this is not an Onion spoof):
Yes, “Whips are BACK for the 2022 season!” – joining “coolers,” “festivals,” and “family fun days”! Wow. Could these people really be that tone-deaf, that oblivious, that disconnected from current mores? Not only that, they opted for the actual word – whips – rather than the usual and utterly delusory “crops.” Again, wow.
While this should not be necessary, here is the definitive refutation of a century of lies on whips. Dr. Rick Arthur, California’s pro-racing equine medical director (he retired last year) at an international conference in 2019: “There are those who argue that whipping doesn’t hurt horses, but that’s nonsense, and we all know that. Whips are noxious stimuli; they hurt, that’s why they’re used. Run fast or I’ll hit you again.”
And that, folks, is what the Monmouth people can’t wait to get back this summer.
Wow! If whips make it more fun; how about I meet them at the entrance. 3 hits and you’re IN! I’ll pay the entry fee.
Referring to the betters…
It’s too bad it can’t work that way! You’d be arrested for assault, unfortunately. The race track people should be arrested for 1) Animal Abuse/ Animal Cruelty, 2) Damage to Property, and 3) Destruction of Property since horses are considered “property” and the race track people deliberately and willfully cause damage and destruction to the bodies and minds of the horses they exploit.
Dr. Rick Arthur’s quote about whips (a.k.a. riding crops) would also apply to the use of electrical shocking devices which some jockeys have been caught using in the past. Since they are not legal in racing, there won’t be any announcements that the shocking devices are back. Who knows which trainers and jockeys are hiding their “dirty little secret” about the illegal use of an illegal shocking device???
Absolutely right, Wanda.. They are likely used at EVERY track.. Need to increase the checks for these devices.!
Well, that was a big THUD, now wasn’t it?
I hope Monmouth officials learned a lesson from their little “humanitarian” experiment: HORSEPLAYERS COULD NOT CARE LESS ABOUT THE ABUSE OF THEIR GAMBLING OBJECTS. Big surprise, right? Consumers of their so-called product are absolutely indifferent to the suffering caused by their bets, whether that suffering is administered with whips, drugs, isolation/confinement, inbreeding/overbreeding, commodification, and/or slaughter. It matters not at all to the few remaining old guys still addicted to animal cruelty that the bulimic little sadists aboard Monmouth’s equine victims were suddenly not permitted to beat an exhausted baby animal with a stick.
Did a single NEW FAN emerge from this experiment? Of course not. Not one soul decided to give this sick game a second look because horse racing had suddenly become humane and acceptable in New Jersey by the absence of the whip. Horseplayers — all of them — simply don’t care that hitting hurts the one who’s hit.
So, guess they’ll have to find another embarrassing strategy to try to (ha ha) Grow the Game.
HOW DID WE LET THIS HAPPEN
I think that those who abuse horses by whipping should be charged as criminals for animal abuse and punished by the full extent of the law.
One of the morally depraved and twisted parts of this industry is that the laws allow for certain uses of the riding crop. The State and Federal laws need to be changed to make a lot of things that are cruel and abusive to horses illegal as opposed to legal. There are a lot of false statements made regarding whether or not riding crops/whips hurt horses. Some google searches will bring up a lot of different questions and answers, but some of the answers are straight up lies. A person has to be dumber than a stick to believe the baloney defending the use of whips on racehorses, such as they don’t hurt because supposedly the whips/riding crops used to whip racehorses are made of foam. It just gets stupider than stupid but you don’t have to have a high IQ to be a “fan” of forcing horses to perform to the point of disabling injuries, fatal injuries and death.
It’s like a man beating the **** out of his sister or his girlfriend or his wife and saying, “She likes it.”
Naturally a toxic, dysfunctional human being that has found a convenient and easy target of his sadistic and brutal abuse is going to lie.
The whip or corp is the equine version of the bullhook. Yes, horse racing industry, such is the company you actively choose to keep.
The Monmouth “people” – guess we shouldn’t be surprised they see horses being whipped while having their lives risked as #familyfundays. Monmouth Park Chairman and CEO Dennis Drazen had horse abuser Jason Servis as his trainer – Monmouth regulars couldn’t get enough of both Servis and Jorge Navarro, posting photos of themselves alongside that disgusting duo, heaping on the praise for a win of one of their drugged-up horses – and a group of Monmouth fans are supporters of the pro-slaughter group Protect The Harvest.
No surprises here.
These people see whipping horses as synonymous with “family fun”. Good grief!!!
And of course, Jorge and Jason were heroes, welcomed with open arms on the annual sojourn from Gulfstream Park.
All the wins were celebrated and awards were bestowed!
Who cared that laws were being broken and horses were drugged as long as there was so much “fun” to be had and lots of money to boot!!
Absolutely no whips should be used…its not necessary & it’s out of date & so cruel
All great commentary aside, it’s really about controlling the message and their business.
They were delighted to put out this announcement that pretty much rubs it in everybody’s face and they are probably laughing about it too.
Horse racing doesn’t want the “animal rights activists” dictating to them on how to run their gambling racket.
They cater to the gambling addicts who actually scream out to “beat” a racehorse more to cash in on bets.
Of course they’re indifferent to cruelty, but well aware that they don’t want any outsiders coming in and telling them what to do.
For years horse racing has been operating with total impunity and that’s just the way they want it.
This example alone clearly shows that HISA will be yet another public relations stunt who will do just enough to placate the public, but never enough to stop the cruelty and dying because they can’t.
Reforms are a ruse.
They don’t have any intentions of stopping the cruelty and you’re right that they can’t. They don’t want to stop the cruelty and the various groups that are basically pro-abuse are pro-slaughter. The Protect the Harvest group/movement is a prime example of this.
As you know, horseracing is inherently cruel to horses and that’s the way these horrible monsters like it.
#endhorseracing
P. S. I think the industry insiders in the *Blue-Ribbon Nominating Committee* and possibly others in the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority will kick anyone out of that “Authority” if or when they are horrified by what they see, hear and are appalled by it and protest or speak out in a way that doesn’t PROTECT THE HARVEST, THE RACE TRACKS & THE ABUSERS. I read on their website that they basically, to paraphrase in a nutshell, reserve the right to kick the industry outsiders out and straight up lie to say that that is not a conflict of interest for the insiders to do this, to make the judgement call of who stays in and who gets kicked out, if any. I hate it when people tell obvious, straight up lies in your face.