The following speaks for itself. While reading, keep in mind that the writer, Gail Ruffu, is (as she points out) in horseracing – i.e., no animal-rights activist is she.
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The following speaks for itself. While reading, keep in mind that the writer, Gail Ruffu, is (as she points out) in horseracing – i.e., no animal-rights activist is she.
Comments are closed.
It is ridiculous to think that the diehard participants of horseracing will ever change the rules to ban whips; that would include the California Horse Racing Board commissioners and stewards and the owners, trainers, and jockeys who only care about winning the most money and the most races.
Horseracing is Animal Cruelty and it needs to be taken off “life support” meaning all of the subsidies need to be terminated. The tax write-offs need to be not available to those people who participate in this Animal Cruelty to horses exploited as four-legged gambling chips.
So, Gail, you don’t want to whip “every horse in every race.” It’s ok, then, to whip some of the horses in some of the races? The answer is no. Horse racing needs to end.
Marie,
Who knows what kind of relationship the owner of the abused horse (BANK OF DAD) and her jockey “boyfriend” had, but it is possible and within the realm of reality that he was taking his anger and frustrations out on her horse instead of beating the crap out of his “girlfriend”. Just saying.
Looking at these makes me laugh at the delusional people in horse racing. So often we hear -“oh they’re just nerf bats” or “the whips are basically pool noodles”. These sure don’t look like either of those to me. What I don’t understand is when I see jockeys hitting horses that are 5+ lengths ahead of everyone else, or ones that are 15+ lengths behind anyone with absolutely no chance of winning. That’s when it becomes obvious that they are either frustrated, angry, or are using the horse as stress relief.
A beautiful group of people here once mercy claimed a horse named Bank Of Dad. That poor horse finished far last in his last race, and came off the track with a bloody whip welt that took over a month to fully heal. I remember the pics of that. And the jockey was the owner’s boyfriend! So this was a horse he knew personally, and yet he was willing to do that to him! These are the pathetic, desperate people in racing though!
Gail,
You need to ask if you can live with yourself as that screen goes up while an innocent animal takes its final breaths. I did just that, and the answer was NO.
Gail Ruffu, You owe it to the horses to stop participating in this inhumane treatment of horses for a paycheck. There are lots of other ways to make a living that don’t involve the daily routine mistreatment and torture of horses.
Who, in their right mind, would think that it is okay to lock horses up in stalls of only 100 square feet or 144 square feet for longer than 10 hours a day?
Confining horses to these small spaces for twenty-three hours a day is abnormal for horses and causes them to suffer psychologically as well as physically to no end. Horses are not genetically designed to be parked in stalls as though they were cars parked in garages.
Gail Ruffu, you owe it to the horses to stop committing all of the cruel industry atrocities against horses that you yourself participate in. Get a real job. Stop abusing horses and calling it “training”.
Whipping is not the only thing wrong with forcing young, immature, and underdeveloped fillies and colts to carry MORE THAN 100 (one-hundred) pounds and gallop at top speed. A lot of horses would never exert themselves 100% without whips, spurs, and in this inhumane so-called sport, electrical shocking devices.
In the 1980s, there was a recognition that people, at least some people, watching the horse races were repulsed by the sight of the jockeys whipping the horses in the stretch.
Most jockeys, and the trainers who hire them to ride, want their horse to win, to cross the finish line first.
Horseracing is known for being cruel and corrupt; this reality will never change. Horseracing is so wrong on so many levels and in so many ways.
*If you really cared about the horses, you would not subject them to the relentless cruelty of which whips are only one small fraction looking at the whole picture.*