This weekend there will be a lot of glitz and glamour at the Kentucky Derby. Outrageous hats, expensive outfits, colorful jockey silks, mint juleps.... it all looks pretty fun. But the outer glamour of horse racing hides some horrific animal abuse.
Many people remember the lengths that Barbaro's owners went to to try to save him after a fall at the Preakness after he had won the Kentucky Derby. But for most race horses, a broken leg means being put down quickly, usually right on the track.
Most people think race horses who can no longer run live out idyllic lives on picturesque farms. It's just not true. This is a business. If a horse is no longer making money for an owner, if there are no stud fees coming in, it is very likely the horse will be sold. And it's quite likely the buyer will be sending the horse, stuffed along with many others, to the slaughterhouse. It's no longer legal in this country to slaughter horses for food; this means they get trucked many miles out of the country to be slaughtered, their meat sold overseas. If you think this can't happen even to prestigious race winners, you're wrong. It can, and it does.
Then there's the hidden horror of the nurse mare foal. These are foals deliberately taken from their mothers as soon as they're born, and allowed to starve to death, or sold for meat. Why does this happen? Because the mother is instead given to a foal thought to be a good racing prospect as a wet nurse. The unfortunate foal of the mother is just considered disposable goods.
We must stop watching horse racing, stop betting on it, stop supporting it. This is the dirtiest and cruelest of "sports," all dolled up in a facade of glitz.
