Written by PETA
Remember Coming Home, the sweet little thoroughbred who, discarded by the racing industry, wound up in the hands of a kill buyer? She was on her way to a slaughterhouse in Canada when PETA, working undercover at an auction house where hundreds of horses are sold every week, stepped in. Today, she lives on a luxurious ranch in New Mexico—and even though she never won a race, in the eyes of her adoring human companions, she's a champion. She even has a new name to fit her new position in life: Little Winner.
WLKY TV in Kentucky recently visited Little Winner, who pranced in her spacious new quarters, as secure and happy today as she was world-weary in May. Another horse, Georgia's Boy, is profiled in a second installment of the news story. The great grandson of Triple Crown Winner Secretariat, Georgia's Boy's lineage didn't prevent his owner from abandoning him to slaughter. Thousands of thoroughbreds meet the same fate every year. We're working hard to end that, and by clicking here, you can join our efforts.
Every horse deserves to be a Little Winner.
Eight Belles did it for New York Times sports columnist William C. Rhoden. After watching the filly break both front legs just after crossing the finish line in the 2008 Kentucky Derby, Rhoden never covered another horse race. "From Eight Belles to Barbaro to thousands of horses in between, racing is a brutal game that grinds up young horses," he wrote in a recent column. "This unrepentant industry exists solely for the pleasure of gamblers and gambling."
Rhoden also joined PETA in condemning the racing industry's abandonment of burned-out, used-up thoroughbreds and backed PETA's proposed Thoroughbred 360 Lifecycle Retirement Plan, which would require that thoroughbred owners and breeders pay a $360 retirement fee for every foal registration, ownership transfer, and breeding registration. Rhoden calls the Jockey Club's refusal to take action in response to PETA's proposal "hardly … acceptable in an industry in which an estimated 10,000 horses from the United States end up slaughtered for meat every year …."
You can help prod the Jockey Club to do right by the animals it uses by sending an e-mail asking that it adopt PETA's retirement plan.
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
Thoroughbred racehorse Coming Home, the granddaughter of Kentucky Derby winner Unbridled and the cousin of the doomed Derby entrant Eight Belles, was bought by a "meat buyer" at a livestock auction for $200 and was hours from being trucked to a slaughterhouse when a PETA investigator rescued her. Coming Home will at last come to a real—and permanent—home on a PETA member's farm, where she will never again have to fear for her life.
Coming Home relaxes with some friends after her rescue.
Thoroughbred owners and breeders in the U.S. may be thinking about the Kentucky Derby when they bring nearly 30,000 new thoroughbreds into the world every single year. But the derby is a dream. A livestock auction and a bolt through the brain are the reality for 10,000 castoff thoroughbred racehorses this year. Owners who pay exorbitant stud fees turn their backs on horses who are too old or injured to run or who are just not fast enough.
With the Kentucky Derby taking place this weekend, PETA is asking The Jockey Club, which registers all thoroughbred foals, to protect them by setting up a retirement fund called the "Thoroughbred 360 Lifecycle Fund." Owners and breeders would pay a $360 retirement fee for every foal, broodmare, and stallion they register and for every ownership transfer. This would generate more than $20 million every year that would go toward providing a humane retirement for the two-thirds of horses bred who are discarded by the industry.
Please e-mail the Jockey Club and ask that it adopt PETA's retirement plan. If owners and breeders are going to continue to crank out thousands of foals—and rake in millions of dollars off the winners' backs—the least that they can do is put some money aside for the horses who aren't quite fast enough to outrun the butcher.
Can Kentucky Derby fans handle the truth? Outdoor advertisers in Louisville don't seem to think so. We sent the ad below to every billboard and bus ad company in town with the intention of running it during next week's Derby, but they all turned us down flat.
We wanted racegoers—and everyone—to know that the horrific on-track breakdown of Eight Belles at the end of the 2008 Kentucky Derby was no fluke. On average, three horses break down on racetracks in America every single day. That adds up to at least 2,000 racehorses dead on tracks since Eight Belles collapsed two years ago after both her front ankles snapped.
After being prodded by PETA, the racing industry has made some improvements, including banning steroids from the states where Triple Crown races are run, but the misuse of legal drugs is still the biggest cause of breakdowns and deaths, and the industry has yet to address that issue in any meaningful way.
Many trainers use injections of painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs to mask fatigue and injury and make horses feel well enough to run when they should be resting and recovering. Racing subjects horses' bodies to punishing stresses that can lead to breakdowns. Racing insiders tell us that some horses are injected with various drugs 25 to 30 times in the week before a race, and it's all legal.
PETA advocates a ban on all drugs during the week leading up to a race, among other reforms. Please take a moment to send an e-mail to the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority to let its officials know that Eight Belles has not been forgotten and to demand that the authority take steps to ensure that no more horses die in pursuit of the roses. As for the Derby: Don't go, don't watch, and don't bet.
Written by Alisa Mullins
Most of you probably remember the tragedy at the 2008 Kentucky Derby, in which a young filly, Eight Belles, was whipped mercilessly in the final stretch, only to break both her front ankles after she crossed the finish line.
At that time, we called for the racing industry to eliminate, at a minimum, some of its most abusive practices, including permanently banning the use of whips.
In an encouraging sign, California's Del Mar Racetrack has just announced that it has officially banned the use of hard leather whips and will only allow softer riding crops on the track. These softer crops will not sting or leave welts on horses like traditional hard leather whips do.
All whips should be banned outright, but considering that this reform comes on the heels (hooves?) of similar improvements by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, it seems that the industry is getting the message that "business as usual" won't fly anymore.
Of course, while these are steps in the right direction, the racing industry is still far from humane. Young horses are still forced to race before their bones are fully mature, horses are pumped with drugs so that they can run while injured, and "retired" racehorses are still sent to slaughter—and these are just some of the many abuses that horses endure in the racing industry. The only way to stop the cruelty altogether is to end horse racing once and for all.
Written by Jeff Mackey
In 2002, the 1986 Kentucky Derby champ, Ferdinand, was slaughtered after his breeding days in Japan were done.
Fast-forward to 2009: Two more horses, Charismatic and War Emblem—Kentucky Derby champs from 1999 and 2002 respectively—may also face slaughter as their usefulness to breeders comes to an end.
After breaking his leg in the 1999 Belmont, Charismatic was sold to breeders in Japan. His value as a breeding stallion has dropped dramatically (to approximately US$5,000), and he has been moved to the lowest-ranking of breeding farms.
Just a few years ago, horse-racing fans cheered as Charismatic and War Emblem ran away with top prizes at the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. Now, PETA's most recent undercover investigation shows what could be in store for these once-celebrated stallions and thousands of other horses sold into the Japanese thoroughbred industry.
Each year in Japan, more than 20,000 horses, including many horses once used for racing, are slaughtered for dog and human food. This video shows the slaughter of a young thoroughbred. As stated in the New York Times, "The video is disturbing. It shows in graphic terms what happens to the unfortunate thoroughbreds who become spare parts in a contracting industry."
You can blame the U.S. horse-racing industry for the carnage. It routinely breeds tens of thousands of "surplus" thoroughbreds every year, then sells thousands of them to breeding facilities in Japan. More than 2,000 U.S. thoroughbred horses and breeding mares have been shipped to Japan since Ferdinand was slaughtered in 2002.
Just last year, Americans watched in horror as racing filly Eight Belles suffered fractures to both her front ankles and was euthanized just moments after running the Kentucky Derby. How can anyone not be disgusted by the shuffling of thousands of horses off to Japan and into slaughterhouses?
Join us in defending former Derby and Preakness champs Charismatic and War Emblem—and thousands of other thoroughbreds. Demand limits on breeding and a ban on the export of horses to Japan.
Written by Karin Bennett
How anyone can still tune in to watch horse racing, especially after Eight Belles broke both her ankles and was euthanized at last year's Kentucky Derby? Well, some mint julep–sipping, tacky hat–wearing folks still do—and for them, this past week was another showcase of horse horrors.
All of the above occurred at just one track during just one weekend, but injuries and death are routine at racetracks.
Anybody want to guess what the upcoming Preakness and Belmont Stakes have in store for horses?
Bodies may not be buried at Churchill Downs, but with so many horses having drawn their last breath there after having been run to death, it might as well be a cemetery. And for two days it will be, because PETA has erected 265 headstones outside the racetrack this week.
Why 265, you ask? We included 263 headstones to represent the horses who have died on the track since last year's Kentucky Derby and whose names we know, one headstone for the approximately 832 other horses who have died but whose names are not known—because racetracks are so bad at reporting breakdowns and deaths—and one headstone for the approximately 12,000 thoroughbreds who are sent off to slaughter each year.
Churchill Downs is, of course, home to the Kentucky Derby and is where Eight Belles lost her life one year ago. Since the Eight Belles tragedy, Churchill Downs has made some reforms in the ways that horses are treated on its track, but banning the use of legal drugs to mask injuries hasn't been one of them. PETA is calling on the people who run the track to ban the use of all drugs in the week before a race. By bringing attention to the thousands of lost lives that don't make headline news, our display will hopefully inspire horse-racing officials to take action.
After all, by my calculations, the horse-racing industry has caused 13,095 horses to die this past year. That's enough to fill a cemetery plus some.
Update: Check out these pictures from the unveiling, then go browse more art by Dan Lacey, who painted the gorgeous picture of Eight Belles.
Written by Shawna Flavell
Curious about the names of the horses who have died on racetracks during the past year? Click here.
We were pretty disappointed when we heard that Mattel was planning to release a "Kentucky Derby Barbie." Barbie has a long history as an animal defender (she's been fur-free for years)—why would she get all, ahem, "dolled" up for an event that centers around animal abuse?
Then it occurred to us that Barbie could very well go to the Kentucky Derby (or, as we say in Louisville, "the Derby") and still maintain her animal-friendly image. How, you ask? By protesting the Derby, of course!
That's why PETA sent a letter to the CEO of Mattel asking him to provide Kentucky Derby Barbie with two special items to take with her to Churchill Downs. She should have her very own to-scale protest sign—reading "Horse Racing is Horse Abuse"—as well as a memorial wreath commemorating Eight Belles and all the other horses who die every day on race tracks. In addition, Kentucky Derby Barbie's box should come with a sticker that explains why Barbie is on her high horse about the dangerous practices that are rampant in the horse-racing industry, such as pumping horses with steroids and other drugs to enable them to run with injuries, breeding horses to have fragile legs, running horses too young (before their bones have fully formed), and racing them on hard dirt tracks.
Barbie's a smart girl. After all, she has been a surgeon, an astronaut, and President of the United States. Surely she knows that there are better ways to spend a Saturday in May than at a "sporting event" that is all too likely to end in tragedy.
Written by Amanda Schinke
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If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.