Every time these mass-killing barn fires occur – here, here, here, here – what makes me most sick (besides the obvious, of course) is the rhetoric that immediately flows from industry exploiters and fans alike. Case in point, this from ex-trainer Amy Dowd:
“Oh, Robyn’s [one of the two affected trainers] phenomenal, takes great care of her horses. This is a devastation for us. It’s a devastation for the racing community. These are not just animals to us. When you wake up with them every morning, you work with them every day. They become your family. They’re not just a horse. They’re not just money to us. They’re our family. When you spend that much time with a horse, they become your family, they become part of you.” (ABC Albany)
“Family” – thrice over. And: “I can’t imagine what these horse trainers are going through.” Not, mind you, what those poor horses actually went through.
In addition, “grief counseling services” are being made available and a “memorial service” is in the works. But most vile of all is the GoFundMe set up for the “horsemen.” It reads:
“While money and donations mean nothing in the loss of the family members of these horsemen, we hope that it can give them some sense of hope for the future and in rebuilding. Nothing will replace the horses, no words can help fix this and nothing in the world will make a difference. The donations will only help in the aftermath as these horsemen have not only lost their loved ones, but their entire stables and livelihoods.”
That page has, to date, raised just shy of $100K. That’s almost $100K – for abusers to get back to abusing.
Here’s what I propose: Before anyone in this industry is ever again allowed to call their horses “family members” and “loved ones,” they must first lock their toddlers – the rough intellectual/emotional equivalent of horses – in a highly-flammable structure without a fire-suppression system and without 24-hour supervision (not to mention, treat them in all the same ways racehorses are treated).
“Family members,” “loved ones”? They’re chattel, resources, means to an end (profit). You know it, and we know it. So please, in the wake of these tragedies – that you yourselves make possible – let’s forevermore dispense with these stomach-churning spectacles.
FRONTLINE and Retro Report have a documentary about adoption in human “family members” titled ‘Baby Brokers’ that will air on PBS and YouTube on June 23, 2026. The adoption industry in the United States is a multi-billion-dollar business. Demand for babies outpaces the number of human babies available for adoption. There is “adoption tourism” and this is loosely regulated with allegations of misconduct for profit.
Moral depravity knows no boundaries.
You don’t put a claiming tag on family members.
Agreed, Marie. U can find some pictures of our old Portland Meadows 1 mile track online as it was being demolished for redevelopment to an Amazon warehouse / distribution center. When PM was 1st constructed the poor horses had no shelter from the terrible winter weather that the track eventually had to settle on as being their season for racing as they could not compete against Long Acres & then much later Emerald Downs. The horse people many times had to construct walls & storage areas themselves for feed & bedding. The aisle ways were notoriously narrow!! Hard to pass a horse through all the bales of hay & bags of feed, let alone have room to shoe or do up bandages without being in the bad weather Oregon is known for in our wet season.
Family?
In what world do we purchase our family, isolate our family, chain and whip our family, break our family’s bodies, and resell our family to ultimately be eaten by others? Oh the lies one tells one’s self and others when there is money to be made…
Regarding the GOFUNDME account, it is important to note that the people behind the GOFUNDME fundraising platform, whoever they are, will be “profiting” from this tragedy and horror of SEVENTEEN HORSES BEING BURNED ALIVE IN A BARN WITH NO FIRE SUPPRESSION EQUIPMENT.
When anyone makes a donation, GOFUNDME takes a percentage of each donation. I believe the percentage they take is 3% of each donation.
I seriously hope that dedicated investigative journalists outside of the racing industry have the will and the wherewithal to do follow-up investigations and reports on the people who are, and will be, literally profiting from the HORRIFIC & PREVENTABLE DEATHS OF SEVENTEEN STANDARDBRED HORSES.
I seriously hope that the names of the human connections of each of the SEVENTEEN HORSES BURNED ALIVE will be made known to the public and that criminal charges WILL BE brought against these people; the owners, the trainers, the drivers, as well as the other people who are connected to the racing industry, especially the Saratoga racetrack where this happened, for their REFUSAL & FAILURE to provide basic FIRE SUPPRESSION EQUIPMENT to a barn full of live horses; AND profiting from, and attempting to profit from, THE DEATHS OF SEVENTEEN STANDARDBRED HORSES BURNED ALIVE through the use of the GOFUNDME FUNDRAISING PLATFORM.
The people who make up the various clubs and associations such as the New York Racing Association, to name one, are responsible for the exploitation of horses for racing and gambling; they are responsible for keeping them stabled in barns on or near the grounds of a racetrack for the sole purpose of exploiting the horses for their “livelihoods”; they have willfully refused and failed to provide proper and basic FIRE SUPPRESSION EQUIPMENT to the barns where the horses they exploit and profit from are/were kept.
Common knowledge and common sense dictate that any REFUSAL AND FAILURE to provide proper and basic FIRE SUPPRESSION EQUIPMENT TO HORSE BARNS AT RACETRACKS constitutes CRIMINAL DEPRIVATION OF CARE.
I hope that honest and competent journalists outside of the racing industry such as from The Times Union, for example, will be empowered to bring the facts to light AND that their efforts will be instrumental in bringing TO JUSTICE all of the people connected to and engaged in the CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES regarding the BURNING ALIVE OF SEVENTEEN STANDARDBRED HORSES.
Sadly- the attached picture is actually a fairly nice looking shedrow.
I wish I could attach a pic of how the barns at mountaineer look. Or the old barns at some other old tracks. They’re awful.
So money and donations mean nothing…, BUT they have lost their livelihoods (source of income) so that’s why they want the money and donations — the money and donations that “mean nothing”…
Because it would be too competent and up-to-date (from whatever year Fire Extinguishers were invented) and make too much common sense to have A FIRE EXTINGUISHER at the very least, so let your horses burn to death and then cry about it after the fact.
Money means so much to them that they couldn’t even buy a fire extinguisher as a half-hearted attempt to take safety precautions in the event of a fire. Nothing says love like committing acts of criminal negligence against the horses and then have the gaul to have their hands out for more free money and donations — money and donations that “mean nothing” to these people.
Who knows who will actually get the money from GOFUNDME, because that platform is ripe for fraudsters, scammers, and con artists and that is not counting the con artists in this industry saying they love their horses so much AFTER they let their horses burn to death in a barn fire with NO FIRE SUPPRESSION EQUIPMENT.