On behalf of thoroughbreds everywhere, a congressional hearing was held today to discuss horseracing—just weeks after PETA and tens of thousands of our members and supporters called for it. You can get a pretty cool play-by-play of the meeting here, but basically, the primary message was that the drugs are the problem—not just steroids but all drugs. Person after person said in testimony that if you get rid of the drugs, you get rid of a lot of problems in racing because horses who don't have the strength to run won't run and then won't be bred. What we need is a zero-tolerance policy!

The hearing was full of moving testimony, including comments from a woman who runs CANTER, a thoroughbred rescue. She gets the horses who have been on all kinds of drugs their whole lives and said that when they go off drugs, they go through withdrawal periods that include hair loss, weight loss, and depression. One of my favorite quotes from the afternoon came from Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who said, "Greed has trumped the health of horses." One person who was not so surprisingly absent was Big Brown's trainer, Richard Dutrow. Given his rap sheet of drug infractions, I can't say I was terribly surprised.

There will be at least one more hearing, possibly looking to consider legislation to appoint a federal racing commissioner so that all laws pertaining to racing will be uniform. The congressional committee also voted to admit PETA's written testimony—which you can read here—into record.

You can respond to our latest horseracing action alert to let Congress know that you care about Eight Belles and all the less famous horses who face death on the track and get your voice heard! These hearings are a wonderful step in the right direction, and we need to continue pushing for progress.

Posted by Christine Dore

Following Eight Belles’ breakdown and euthanasia at the Kentucky Derby on May 3, PETA called for congressional hearings into the abuses of the horse racing industry and we urged immediate improvements. Visitors to peta.org sent thousands of emails to congress backing our call for hearings. I'm thrilled to say that after only 3 weeks of action on our part and your part as activists, it’s been announced that hearings will, in fact, be held.

To everyone who took action: THANK YOU! Because of strong activists like you we are able to make strides in important campaigns such as this one. You can read more about this here.

We will now be focusing our energy on the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection by asking them to focus on the cruelest practices of racing: legal and illegal drug use, track surfaces, whipping, racing horses too young and too often, and discarding “used up” thoroughbreds to slaughter. You can take action by sending an e-mail to subcommittee chair Bobby Rush by using this contact form.

Thanks again for speaking up and I hope these congressional hearings really shine some much needed light on the horse racing industry. These improvements are a matter of life and death for horses.