Through a FOIA request to the California Horse Racing Board, I have obtained the following details on some of that state’s kills in 2025 (previous ones here).
Willy, Apr 3, Los Alamitos T
“Complete, displaced, comminuted fracture of the scapula; severe, extensive hemorrhage.” Willy was four years old.
West of the Valley, Apr 9, Cal Expo S
“Horse was diagnosed with orchitis [swelling of testicles] Mar 12; horse was found deceased in stall Apr 9.” Final diagnosis: “intestinal herniation into the scrotum and marked, chronic testicular abscessation.” This poor boy was two – two – years old.
Bonus Tornado, Oct 19, Los Alamitos R (euth Oct 26)
“LF fetlock failure: [multiple] complete, displaced fractures; [multiple] torn tendons; [multiple] torn ligaments.” With all that, they still sent Bonus, four, to surgery – a surgery that included a 16-hole compression plate, 20 screws, a tension-band wire, 45 staples, and 5 sutures. Within days, Bonus fell ill with “severe, necrotizing typhlocolitis and necrotizing hepatitis.” He was then euthanized – a full week after the initial catastrophic injury. And, of course, he also had stomach ulcers. That poor, poor boy.
These corrupt people thrive on using horses with injuries specific to racing as ‘lab rats’ which is as much a part of the corruption and bloodlust in this industry as using horses for racing and Pari-mutuel gambling. The CHRB members use a ’72-hour’ loophole to avoid reporting the true numbers of horses killed by racing at California racetracks.
Send them out to die of fatal injuries on the racetrack. If the injured horses can be “saved” by surgical procedures, they are not reported in the death count in the event the injured horse doesn’t survive the surgery for whatever reason.
The CHRB doesn’t have to give a reason after the 72- hour loophole; they don’t have to report anything about the horse at that point. The 72-hour rule protects the predators, not the horses.
HW is ahead of the curve. Someday people will look back on horse racing and the like and think WTF were those people thinking? What kind of savages were they? Race cars, motorcycles, drones, anything without a soul if you must, but leave living beings out of it. RIP Bonus Tornado and all equines who were and are victims of the industry.