Good Yegg in the 2nd at Hawthorne yesterday, in the cold, terse telling of the chartwriter: “Good Yegg broke slowly, sustained a catastrophic injury while racing on the far turn, was pulled up then euthanized on the course.” And that’s that – dead, right there on the playing field. So, did they cancel the rest of the day’s competition, heck, even have a moment of silence? Not on your life. Cart the 1,000-pound corpse off the track and get on with the festivities. A “sport”? Only to the ignorant and/or heartless.
Thank you for sharing your experiences, Debbie. It’s horrible.
Thank you, Debbie. In human beings, uncontrollable shaking can be diagnosed as GAD — General Anxiety Disorder. I’m not sure if there is a diagnosis for horses. That uncontrollable shaking is something that I observed in one Thoroughbred gelding in particular in 1977 when I was working as a groom. The trainer and the other groom gave him a shot of something that I assumed was a tranquilizer. It was a training track so no races were held there except for one summer in 1966 and they lost money.
I worked briefly as a stall cleaner at Grants Pass Downs, considered a “bush track,” in Oregon.
Death could almost be considered a welcome release from the blatantly abusive conditions the horses endure day in and day out.
Everyone privy to the backside there knows and simply ignores what I am assuming is common sense and obvious for anyone who cares something for animal welfare. There is just zero empathy. It is a Twilight Zone.
Horses weaving, cribbing, bobbing, standing along the stall wall, some with eyes that have all but lost their inner light.
Horses starved for touch yet terrified of it because being groomed means suffering and pain are to follow next with work or racing. Some shake uncontrollably.
Can you imagine how that feels.
And I saw only a sliver.
Thank you for this website. I know it’s helping them.
In what other sport do they show such callous disregard for the life of an animal? I would say maybe camel racing but I don’t know of any specific cases. Also, I would say that in racing homing pigeons, if a specific pigeon is somehow fatally injured in the commotion that the race goes on regardless of any casualties.
Of course, the blood sports of fighting dogs and fighting roosters is a given that one animal will die in each fighting match and I have heard that sometimes both animals in a fight die.
Then there is the “outdoor sports” where human hunters buy rifles from a “sporting goods” store and a hunting license and a permit and go out and stalk big game such as deer and elk as well as small game such as pheasant, wild turkey, duck, and quail.
You would have to see it to believe it at how wild game can be wounded and still walk with part of their insides hanging out and flopping from side to side with each step.
Yes, it is all gruesome and the animals suffer unimaginably.