In preparation for our Preakness campaign, I filed a FOIA request for data in Maryland that predates our start in 2014. The forwarded figures, unfortunately, only reflect raceday kills – i.e., no training or stall. So here they are by year (again only raceday).
1995: 28 dead racehorses
1996: 26 dead racehorses
1997: 14 dead racehorses
1998: 26 dead racehorses
1999: 25 dead racehorses
2000: 22 dead racehorses
2001: 34 dead racehorses
2002: 30 dead racehorses
2003: 24 dead racehorses
2004: 37 dead racehorses
2005: 26 dead racehorses
2006: 24 dead racehorses
2007: 28 dead racehorses
2008: 21 dead racehorses
2009: 23 dead racehorses
2010: 28 dead racehorses
2011: 11 dead racehorses
2012: 24 dead racehorses
2013: 34 dead racehorses
19-year total: 485, or about 25 racing kills/year.
In addition, from 2004 on, they added two other columns: In the 10-year period 2004-2013, 139 horses were “scratched for lameness/injury”; 300 horses “returned lame.”
Horseracing – maiming and destroying beautiful animals every day, for $2 bets.
Within the body of knowledge of VETERINARY MEDICINE and the “excuses-for-horsemen” in horseracing, it is well-known that specific types of INJURIES occur to RACEHORSES.
They know that racehorses running on the flat and over jumps are subject to fractures of the spine, spinal cord injuries, pelvic fractures, the various other bone fractures and sometimes paralysis. They know what injuries are specific to horses in racing and jumping.
The phony act that any of them put on to pretend it’s a big mystery is a dirty rotten lie. What happens to the bodies of racehorses happens all the time, more than outsiders could imagine without documentation. It is the business of veterinarians to know what happens to racehorses. The brutalizing and maiming of horses for racing is cruel and barbaric. It needs to be stopped! The racing of horses is INHUMANE!