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.
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.