PETA Statement re Bob Baffert Ruling

For Immediate Release:
March 21, 2022

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding Franklin Circuit Court Judge Thomas D. Wingate’s decision to deny Thoroughbred trainer Bob Baffert a stay on his suspension. Baffert had asked the court to stop the suspension, ordered by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, after the horse Medina Spirit was found to have a prohibited medication in his system during the Kentucky Derby:

We’re relieved that a judge has finally decided that Bob Baffert has to abide by the same laws as everyone else. While Baffert has painted himself as the victim, Medina Spirit is the one who died and horses still need to be protected from Baffert’s experimental pharmacology. If Baffert is suspended, we hope he will use those 90 days to contemplate a permanent retirement from racing.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.