Through a FOIA request to the California Horse Racing Board, I have obtained the following details on the final three kills in that state in 2023.
Smiling Felon, Dec 19, Golden Gate T
“Galloping near 1/8 pole this morning, [horse] suffered [multiple] complete, displaced fractures; [multiple] ligament tears; tendon tear; rupture of fetlock joint capsule.” Also: “osteochondral disease [both front limbs]; [multiple] ulcers.” Smiling was three years old.
Hop On and Ride, Dec 30, Los Alamitos R (euth Jan 2)
“Catastrophic fracture of RF leg, complete tearing of several ligaments, complete rupture of fetlock joint capsule.” Also: “osteochondral disease [both front limbs]; severe, chronic ulcerative gastritis; severe, focally extensive colitis.” Hop On was four years old.
Bound to Bet, Dec 30, Los Alamitos R (euth Jan 2)
“Injured in race, sent for surgery, euthanized on table. [Multiple] open, displaced fractures; complete rupture of several ligaments; complete tearing of tendon; complete rupture of fetlock joint capsule.” Also: “osteochondral disease [both front limbs]; stomach ulceration.” Bound was six years old.
WeeSherry, Thank you for sharing your thoughts and beliefs. I absolutely agree with you about the use of profanity and I need to go to the dictionary to find words that can rightfully replace those slang words that might turn most people away from the bigger message.
I think most people know that it isn’t enough to be outraged without making the effort to do more. Getting past the outrage and anger and the “knee-jerk reaction” use of foul language, profanity, and name-calling in the face of this egregious cruelty to horses and other animals takes a lot of effort for me and I think most people could relate to that.
Thank you for your comments, WeeSherry!
We always try to stay away from foul language as it is big turn off to us & we`re sure many others as well.The big loop that Wanda writes of sounds absolutely barbaric! Barbarism apparently is alive & well in today`s supposedly modern enlightened world.
The most most expert opinion will never gain public support if the writer refuses to keep courtesy of language in their written thoughts. The most admired writers in the world never resorted to profanity to achieve a victory in any cause worth winning. An educated mind and pure tongue changes the world. The greatest writers in the world always kept courtesy in their pens and in their speech from their mouths, and thus they achieved their goals.
I don’t know about the pig and Ford races, but I have heard and read about the Big Loop roping where the “contestants” ride a horse trained for riding and roping and then instead of roping bovines they rope equines. A “Big Loop” roper ropes the victim-horse that has been singled out for this sadistic torture around both front legs while they are running alongside the arena fence at a gallop. The usual thing that happens is the horse falls when his or her front legs are jerked out from underneath him/her. This breaks their stride, of course, and they don’t have control over their own legs at this point and they fall hard on the dirt floor of the arena. These horses get hurt bad enough that they will be disabled for life which will be cut short by whatever means these sadistic narcissists choose. It’s one of the most sadistic things these assholes can do to a horse.
It’s like the horse is an aluminum can and they want to crush it in any crude way they can but these are not inanimate objects. They are living, breathing horses that are forced to endure the most frightening and horrible experience inside of an arena where people watch this crap as entertainment.
Fredjoan and wldiamon9 always have superlative comments, and I hold the opinion, that both should be working professionally on behalf of abused and murdered horses. It is somewhat astounding that these individuals are not being contacted by animal rights organizations to be staffers. They have the inside knowledge. and the articulation to shame the industry, along with the talent to raise public ire on how the Sport of Kings is nothing more than state by state sanctioned extermination of race horses.
We have ridden at the unregulated bush league tracks here in Oregon. Both private & county owned. There is positively nothing majestic about any of them! In 1983 when we 1st started riding our ” Practice races”, The races were conducted every Sunday morning we later we found were gamboled heavily every week!! We found out later when working at a marina from a gambler who lost lots of $$ betting on the horses we were riding! That same track is still operating today & is about to have its August meeting of 3 days. We have seen poor horses raced with fetlocks as big as melons running. All these poor horses have given up & have just become inured to their lot in life. So sad. Really wish the various govt. subsidies would all go away supporting this cruel & inhumane industry. Same goes for Rodeos too which also will be held at the same track at Tillamook at the same track in the middle of the homestretch in front of the grandstand with portable temporary panels removed for when the races are not running. Then of course there is the pig & Ford races conducted on the same track after the horse races are done which is another devastating event to the little pigs involved with those races. They should just have the old Ford races devoid of any animals.
The pain from these racing-induced injuries had to be excruciating! This is not majestic. This is not socially acceptable.
Keeping in mind that Golden Gate Killing Fields was a “regulated” racetrack, it’s beyond sickening that anyone in the racing industry press would refer to (unregulated) “bush” track racing as “humble beginnings” for a young man starting out as a jockey.
It’s really sickening that anyone would twist the meaning of the word “humble” to mean something “criminal”, “illegal” or “against the law”.
Unregulated horse racing is criminal, illegal, against the law.
Unregulated horse racing is criminal activity. However, in this egregiously cruel industry that “struggles to keep its social license to operate” describing it as “humble” is one way to justify the cruelty and put a jockey in their “Racing Hall of Fame” after winning so many races at Santa Anita.