A video – here – has surfaced that appears to show jockeys (and brothers) Irad and Jose Ortiz collecting cash at a cockfight in Puerto Rico. Not that it matters, but it is unclear when the video was taken. (The federal ban on cockfighting was extended to U.S. territories – including Puerto Rico – at the end of 2019.) Now, PETA has petitioned the board for the “Eclipse Awards” to make the brothers ineligible for future nominations (for “Outstanding Jockey”). PETA’s letter to Eclipse reads in part:
“While Irad Ortiz, Jr., may lead North American jockeys in both wins and earnings, with Jose close behind, they are trailing as representatives of the racing industry. … In addition to the legal ramifications, it’s stunning that past Eclipse Award winners participated in any way in the bloody, fight-to-the-death obscenity that is cockfighting.
“Their actions are without question detrimental to racing. The public already sees whipping, illegal drug use, breakdowns, and the slaughter of Thoroughbreds as abusive. In addition to dealing with these life and death issues, the racing industry must not tolerate cruelty to any species by racing licensees. Thank you.”
Look, cockfighting is horrific, and the people who take part – fighting, betting, attending, it doesn’t matter – are as vile as it gets. But are they any more so than those responsible for horseracing? PETA, are you really “stunned” that scumbag jockeys would also engage in other forms of animal torture? Are the brothers’ actions really “detrimental to racing”? Must the racing industry really “not tolerate cruelty to any species by [its] licensees”?
Here’s my take: This is low-hanging fruit for PETA. The vast majority of the civilized world is appalled by cockfighting. Being outraged by the Ortiz brothers’ presence at a cockfight causes no waves (and, not to mention, is an easy way to solicit donations). But where is that outrage on horseracing? Not just certain aspects of it, but horseracing itself. When, pray tell, will you finally and unequivocally extend your famous motto – “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way” – to the “Sport of Kings” and call for it not to be better regulated, but abolished? Enough is enough.
At times Wanda were ashamed to be from Oregon with all the acceptance of the rodeos & bull ring races here. Were supposed to be such a progressive state! Some races here are underground as well. My old neighbor has been to some out of curiosity. Warned her that it was not a good idea to attend by herself. Fortunately as she is older none of the people bothered her.
Fred and Joan, I have seen some of the SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness videos. His videos exposed some so-called cowboys in the bucking chutes using small hand-held electric shock devices and shocking the bucking horses to jump out of the chute faster and probably jump higher too. He shows how sneaky they are about it and how they hide them up their sleeves or somewhere. It would be difficult to see what they are doing without his videos because they are so sneaky and fast. He catches it on film so more people can see what they might not otherwise see. Much of the cruelty in rodeos is right out in the open to see like horse racing.
Look up S.H.A.R.K. investigations. Mark does excellent work bringing out in the open illegal cock & bird shoots with the use of drones. He has been harassed in earlier years here in Oregon for his coverage of cruel & inhumane rodeos too.
PETA is nothing more than a smoke and mirrors organization that has no real interest in protecting or defending victims of animal abuse. They are the organization that unplugged all those air conditioners attached to owners’ trailers at a dog show in Arizona so the dogs inside basically cooked to death, and their excuse was that those dogs were better off dead than being exploited at a dog show. I don’t need a single finger to count the so-called “animal rights” organizations that condemn horse racing, even with the mountains of evidence of torture and abuse that fit perfectly with the posted definitions of what they’re supposedly against.
If jockeys were disqualified for whipping horses repeatedly and excessively, Irad Ortiz, Jr would have been disqualified many times.
If trainers who dope horses with illegal substances were actually punished by jail time, D. Wayne Lukas would have been put in jail for the 1988/1989 case of doping horses with cocaine. Instead, he denied it and somehow it magically became a “baffling” mystery as to how the cocaine positive showed up at all.
Isn’t it obvious that it’s all about the money and lots of it?!!!
PETA’s assertion that cockfighting is “detrimental to horseracing” is not merely illogical. It is a striking example of how the organization manages to evade the central moral issue altogether. Horseracing is not harmed by comparison to cockfighting. Horses are harmed by horseracing. By framing the discussion this way, PETA implicitly shifts attention away from the actual victims, the horses, and instead treats horseracing as something whose reputation needs protecting. This is a profound misplacement of moral focus. The question is not whether horseracing is made to look worse by being mentioned in the same sentence as cockfighting. The question is whether horseracing itself is ethically defensible given the injuries, breakdowns, drugging, forced training, and routine disposal of animals whose bodies fail under the demands of the industry. Cockfighting is a barbaric blood sport. So is any system that pushes animals beyond their physical limits for entertainment and profit, knowing that catastrophic injury and death are not accidents but predictable outcomes. To claim that cockfighting is “detrimental to horseracing” is to worry about optics while ignoring suffering. It treats cruelty as a public relations problem rather than a moral one. If PETA’s goal is to advocate for animals, it should state the truth plainly: horseracing is detrimental to horses. No comparison to any other cruelty is required to make that case.