Through a FOIA request to the Washington Racing Commission, I have confirmed the following kills at Emerald Downs thus far this year.
Mirror Image, Mar 25, Emerald S
“Volvulus of the distal jejunum, cecal perforation.” This poor boy was 12 and had been raced an unconscionable 91 times – and yet they (primarily owner/trainer Valentin Garcia) weren’t done with him. Disgusting people, disgusting industry.
Business as Usual, May 9, Emerald T
“Traumatic fall: fractured skull, subsequent trauma to adjacent nasal and oral cavity [resulting in] epistaxis and oral hemorrhage.” Business was five.
Phantom Ride, May 10, Emerald T
“Catastrophic fetlock failure: [multiple] fractures, complete tearing of several tendons and ligaments.” Also: “osteochondral disease [both forelimbs].” And this: “Gross finding [of] multiple chronic gastric ulcers are common in performance horses, often associated with low-forage, high-grain diets; stress; intense exercise; NSAID usage; and/or prior gastric myiasis.” Phantom was six.
Diamond Dee, May 24, Emerald R
“Fractured skull – acute, comminuted, complete, with intracranial hemorrhage and slight internal displacement.” Then this: “The gastric ulcers appear chronic and are unlikely related to the cause of death.” Dee was five.
Higher Performance, Jun 26, Emerald R (video here)
“Open, comminuted MC3 fracture – multiple bone shards; skin, skeletal muscle, tendons, and associated fascia torn; distal aspect of the limb attached by an approximately 4-cm segment of skin and underlying soft tissue.” Higher was three.
Horse racing is so horrific and their suffering is so terrible and the vile sadistic riders and trainers care nothing about those poor innocent horses
In the necropsy reports regarding chronic gastric ulcers, it seems like they couldn’t care less how much pain and suffering they cause to horses, as if that is what horses are for, to torture until dead.
Another dead racehorse with gastric ulcers, (ho-hum) what a common occurrence, who cares, business as usual, next tortured racehorse killed by the racing industry up for necropsy…
They all should be arrested for Animal Cruelty and locked up.
It resembles police only giving someone a ticket for a secondary offense in the event that a motorist first gets caught speeding or doing aggressive and/or drunk driving.
These racing industry people know that what they do to these horses causes the horses to suffer miserably with gastric ulcers. But kill the horse and then report it casually.
There is something drastically wrong in the world when horses not just in North America, but globally are dying due to greed and the attitude that living creatures are “commodities.” What does it take to rouse the conscience of immoral nations? Apparently, horses being whipped, viciously by jockeys who are renowned for repeat offenses are not ruled off for life, babies (two year-olds) needled with lethal drugs, barns that are unsafe due to lack of fire extinguishers and backstretch workers who are untrained and do not know how to rescue horses from burning barns, autopsy photos of horses with multiple fractures of limbs, van companies that are not required to protect horses in transit by having vans equipped with fire extinguishers and defibrillators, criminal trainers who should be serving time in federal prisons for felonious abuse of horses, are not enough evidence for a world that is cancerous and depraved in heart, mind and soul. Nero fiddled while Rome burnt in America the elite party at Saratoga with gala balls and over the hill celebrities and has been athletes desperate for media attention so they invest in race horses and the public? From from America to France, Canada to Ireland, Italy to Australia, etc. the public does nothing as the greedy billionaires are turning democracies into skid row nations.