PETA Calls On Jack Harlow to Donate ‘Churchill Downs’ Profits to Racehorses

For Immediate Release:
June 3, 2022

Contact:
Robin Goist 202-483-7382

The winner of this year’s Kentucky Derby was struck in the face by an outrider shortly after crossing the finish line, and an average of three horses die on U.S. racetracks every day—but rapper Jack Harlow and Drake have chosen to glamorize horseracing with their new “Churchill Downs” video. In response, PETA is calling on the Louisville native to donate the song’s proceeds toward caring for Thoroughbreds discarded by the industry, which exports 7,500 of them for slaughter every year.

“Jack Harlow’s glamorized portrayal of horse racing is missing the whips, drugs, and deaths that run rampant in the industry,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “Profiting from the abuse of others is never acceptable, and PETA is calling on Jack Harlow to pony up and pay for the care of American Thoroughbreds who would otherwise be shipped to foreign slaughterhouses.”

Twenty-four horses died at Churchill Downs last year alone, and in a video narrated by Succession star James Cromwell, PETA reveals that trainers use cocktails of drugs to enhance horses’ performance and force them to run through painful injuries, which increases the risk of catastrophic breakdowns. And when horses stop making money, owners discard them—even previous Derby runners, such as Private Vow, who PETA uncovered was secretly killed at the largest horse slaughterhouse in South Korea. As Cromwell says, “The only sure thing in horse racing is that the horses always lose.”

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.