Remember those stomach-churning scenes from PETA's undercover investigation at a horse slaughterhouse? Horses, discarded by the racing industry, were slaughtered and hacked into pieces.  On the heels of that horrific case, we went to the one organization that deals with every thoroughbred breeder in this country—The Jockey Club, which handles all foal registrations—and asked why the run for the roses had turned into a race for horses' lives. We gave Jockey Club officials a detailed proposal for implementing and funding a real thoroughbred retirement program, the Thoroughbred 360 Lifecycle Fund. More than 32,000 PETA members and supporters wrote in support of it.

They Listened!

The Jockey Club paid attention. Today, less than a year after receiving our recommendations, The Jockey Club, the Keeneland Association, and the Breeders' Cup, Ltd., have announced the launch of an organization—the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (TAA)—composed of owners, trainers, breeders, racetracks, jockeys, horse-rescue experts, and others in the racing industry. The TAA will begin by laying the groundwork for the program. As we suggested, it will inspect every stable and sanctuary that wants to provide a home for a thoroughbred. The facilities that make the grade will be accredited. And then the TAA will raise funds to get the horses into those homes.

How You Can Help Horses

There's much more work to be done, and it won't end all the cruelty in racing, but making a lifetime commitment to the horses these groups depend on for their income is a good start.

Written by Kathy Guillermo

Horse races aren't just dangerous for horses—they can hurt people too. Seven people, including a 2-year-old girl, were taken to the hospital after a terrified horse leaped over an 8-foot fence and into a crowd of spectators at the Grand Annual Steeple race in Warrnambool, Australia. Banna Strand's rider fell off in a dangerous pile-up during the first lap of the race, and the horse jumped over the wrong fence, landing in a crowd of about 50 people. Witnesses said the panicked horse continued to run, making almost a complete lap around the course before being caught.
 

Steeplechase racing was suspended in Victoria (one of only two Australian states where it is still legal) in 2009 after three horses died in two days at Warrnambool. Animal protectionists had asked Warrnambool to call off this year's series of races after a horse died two days prior to the Banna Strand incident, "but they let it continue and the public paid the price," said Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses spokesman Ward Young.

Horses routinely suffer serious and even lethal injuries in U.S. races too. During Saturday's Kentucky Derby, Archarcharch was pulled up after incurring a career-ending leg fracture, Comma to the Top chipped a bone in his left front ankle, and Pants on Fire suffered internal bleeding.

You can help prevent these and other racehorses from ending up in the hands of slaughterhouse buyers at the end of their short careers by supporting PETA's Thoroughbred 360 Lifecycle Retirement Fund. 
 

Written by Michelle Sherrow

On the eve of the Kentucky Derby, Secretariat star James Cromwell has written to The Jockey Club urging it to adopt PETA's proposed Thoroughbred 360 Lifecycle Retirement Fund. The plan would require owners and breeders to pay a $360 retirement fee for each new foal they register. The money generated from the fees would be put into a fund to provide care for the 10,000 former racehorses currently sent to slaughter each year.

"These magnificent animals should not end up on a meat hook after a terrifying journey to a terrifying death," writes Cromwell in his letter. "I urge the Jockey Club, as the only official body that deals with every thoroughbred owner in every racing state, to implement PETA's Thoroughbred 360 Lifecycle Retirement Fund without delay."

Join James Cromwell in asking The Jockey Club to give racehorses the dignified retirement that they deserve.  

Written by Michelle Sherrow