Four. That’s the number of days the Tillamook County Fair in Oregon races horses each August. Four. That, according to the Racing Commission, is the number of horses who died during this year’s edition. That’s horrific enough: The lives of four beautiful, intelligent, sensitive beings snuffed out for lousy $2 bets and cheap entertainment at some seedy county fair – which boasts, in addition to the horseracing, “4H and FFA animal projects” and “Pig-n-Ford Races” (complete with terrified, squealing piglets) – in just four days. But listen to the nonchalant way the meeting attendees talked about it:
“Extreme state of distress…reared up…hit its head…dropped cold…it was dying…respiratory distress as it lay there. That was just sort of a weird one.”
While they did not identify the victims, I know that one was Jaded Secrets, who, says the chart, “took a bad step and fell” (one of those “freak accidents”) on Aug 8. I’m fairly certain another was Morro Morro, who “clipped heels and fell” on Aug 7. The others – including the one who bled out from the lungs in the starting gate – will have to wait till our FOIA.
Ah! Good all Tillamook fair track. The 1st race track we galloped horses on in 1983. Notorious what goes on there! Have seen horses legs wrapped in wires hooked up to car batteries. Know the track & its facilities intimately. Absolute bottom of the barrel entertainment venue with poor squealing pigs & horses being subjected to fear & stress of rough handling. We have seen a trainer ride her own horse in a race after a wreck that caused a shortage of riders caused by a multiple horse wreck some years ago. An owner is not allowed to ride their own horse in ANY official Thoroughbred or 1/4 horse race of record. The stewards allowed her to ride as it was her families home track & her parents supported racing for > 50 years. Her father was the 1st owner / trainer to allow us to teach young horses to be ridden. That 1st group of Thoroughbreds we made MANY mistakes with in teaching them to be ridden. This type of racing we really wish would go away! We once lived in Tillamook county from 1976 until 1998. So glad to have left after the great floods of 1996. Appreciate the detailed info on those horses that were so callously spoken of.
She says at the end that “it’s not a simple fix” as if scratching a distressed horse is complicated. It isn’t complicated, but if you’re morally depraved and totally void of empathy, then yes, it would not be that simple to show empathy to a distressed horse.
Supposedly, all of the “catastrophics” were “freak” accidents. Isn’t it swell when you can dismiss yourself from all competence and responsibility of creating the conditions that cause catastrophic breakdowns to horses and doing nothing to prevent it. These people are truly disgusting beyond words!
No feelings whatsoever for the animals by any of these people. Absolute zero empathy. It makes me shudder.
Evidently, if the horse had dropped to the ground during the race, it would not have been “a weird one” but rather quite a “normal” way for a racehorse to drop dead. Instead, the horse reared up in the starting gate and suffered blunt force trauma to the head. The horse’s behavior was off due to the stress of internal bleeding in the lungs.
I suspect the owner and trainer were among some of the most heartless or the most clueless people involved with this particular horse. This case doesn’t say anything positive about the attending veterinarian/s at the racetrack either.
I think it would be really obvious that something was seriously wrong with this horse before entering the starting gate. I think that if they cared about the horse at all, they would have noticed something was seriously off with the horse’s breathing and behavior. Even though I have not ever been around a horse with pulmonary hemorrhage, I have been around horses enough to know that when something is off with the horse somehow, that you can detect it in their behavior.
In horseracing, it is standard practice to send horses to their death especially on the racetrack. So that’s what happened here and what makes it weird is that the horse was dying and had to be euthanized before the starting gates opened.
Nothing is weirder than the way these people talk about horses suffering and dying. Just another day at the fair to these animal abusers.
There is something profoundly disgusting and disturbing about how casually suffering can be discussed. Four horses died in four days, while people watched and bet on the races for entertainment. And terrified piglets are incorporated into another fair attraction. This is not something to shrug off as harmless county fair fun. It is suffering and death turned into sadistic entertainment.