This from the NYS Gaming Commission for Two Pence at Belmont this past Sunday: “after galloping for the first time, horse was returned to barn [then] suddenly collapsed and died.” The horse in question, as evidenced by the “galloping for the first time,” was a virtual baby – she had just turned two Apr 1. “Suddenly collapsed and died.” You can’t make this stuff up. The Commission added that a “sudden death study” has begun – a “study,” I guarantee, that will never see the light of day.
This is horseracing.
Further, why should it not be illegal to export horses for slaughter in Mexico since the method of slaughter there is barbaric. The US has hard won laws concerning slaughter. Severing the spinal cord of fully conscious animals as is done in Mexico is not an approved US method….
Rose, thank you for sharing information about illegal slaughter of horses in Florida. It is interesting that you say it is well-known when in the past I have attempted to enlighten certain individuals on this exact subject and was rejected as being a liar or stupid or something like that. Maybe some people find it too shocking to be true. I can only speculate why people want to be so close minded about something that is real.
It is not well-known in some circles of our population right here in the United States. I have no doubts whatsoever that this illegal and atrocious slaughter in Florida is well-known to certain groups of people especially in the state of Florida.
The C-9 Basin in Miami – Dade, county, Florida, has a long – standing and well documented reputation as a hub for illegal horse slaughter. Investigators have described the area as one of the most active sites for illegal horse slaughter in the world.
It has been going on there for years and years and even though well documented, and essentially well known, it is never comes close to being shut down.
Evidently there is a big demand for horse flesh, like enough animals are not already slaughtered day after day to satisfy all the human carnivores, they resort to this depravity. Further, all kinds of animals are subjected to illegal slaughter in the same area.
Bad enough that halal slaughter is practiced all over the US which is against the humane slaughter rules/laws but that is a subject for a different venue.
Here you are, James: https://horseracingwrongs.org/category/slaughter/.
James,
If you do a search of legal slaughter of horses in the United States, the history should come up. It has been mentioned numerous different times on this site in the past. There are numerous livestock auctions in the United States where horses with racing records have been sold and some of the horse dealers and kill buyers advertise some of them online and on Facebook. The kill buyers jack the price up and say that these horses will be shipped to slaughter (in Mexico or Canada) on such and such a date. By putting it this way, they create a sense of urgency and dread that if you or someone doesn’t buy the horse by this date, the horse(s) will be shipped to slaughter. They are basically heartless in the sense that they are looking to make as much profit as they can no matter what happens to the horses.
A lot of Thoroughbred owners sell horses to buyers in Japan and South Korea where slaughtering horses and eating horse meat is part of their culture.
Horses are also sold and shipped to Puerto Rico where the horses are basically doomed. Some horses are killed by the horrible shipping conditions of being shipped by sea. You may have read that story in the past.
I can only wonder how many people are slaughtering horses illegally in the United States. There was a Facebook post about a certain Thoroughbred mare that was shot and killed and then slaughtered in the state of Florida.
There was also a fairly recent post on Facebook by a certain group that mentioned the tracking down of wealthy people and their underground activities using horses. It was disturbing to say the least. They said that there are groups of people with lots of money who like to use racehorses that have been sold at livestock auctions and that sort of thing and use them in unimaginably cruel things that are considered “entertaining”; but what they do to the horses could only be done by the most sadistic and bloodthirsty types of people.
The group on Facebook mentioned that the officers who attempt to enforce the laws against abusing horses in California in these horrifically sadistic activities are at risk of being killed by these underground types of people. They mentioned large vats of acid.
Horseracing Wrongs, I could be wrong but you don’t mention horseslaughter in the U.S.
They could “do a study” as if it is a big mystery why horses drop dead suddenly. Or, they could disclose all of the pertinent information on racehorses dropping dead suddenly that has already been accumulated for decades at racetracks and the necropsies done by the VETERINARY SCHOOLS. That is, if they wanted the public to have a clue about how callous and deliberately cruel they are when it comes to forcing young horses to gallop at top speed under the weight of a saddle and rider with a whip and a hand-held electric shocking device and the various drugs, both legal and illegal, that are injected into the bodies of young horses.
Would it be appropriate to ask for the information regarding the “sudden death study” through a Freedom of Information Act request? If they do a necropsy on TWO PENCE, they might find something unusual in her anatomy and physiology that would indicate that she should never have been subject to galloping at top speed in the first place.
Elizabeth, sounds very similar to our Count. At 2 years old he had not dropped as well & had been nearly starved to death by the brother & sister who could not decide to who was to feed the horse once it was foaled! Our Count was the kindest & fastest Thoroughbred horse we ever rode! Writing of Belmont park, have you all seen the ugly monstrosity of a new grandstand that NYRA has built? Ugly, ugly, ugly! So much for tradition! That new grandstand was a terrible waste of $$ to the taxpayers of New York!
My TB, whose birthday was also April 1, was 2 when he left the track because he was too slow. His testicles didn’t drop until he was 3. He ran slow because it was too painful to run with his testicles still up in his abdomen. They dropped when he was 3 but by then the trainer said my horse was too “old” to return to the track. Old at 3? Thank goodness I knew the trainer who arranged to give me the horse for the price of castration. Otherwise, he would have been sent to a slaughterhouse. He lived until 30.