Cancel Belmont Racing in Current Hazardous Conditions: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
June 7, 2023

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Elmont, N.Y. –

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding racing in New York while the air quality is at dangerous levels:

PETA calls on the New York Racing Association and the New York State Gaming Commission to cancel all horseracing and training on Thursday and potentially this weekend due to smoke and the dangerous particulate level. If the air in New York is unsafe for humans, it will be worse for horses running at top speed. Finger Lakes Gaming & Racetrack, Penn National Race Course, and Delaware Park have already announced closures today. The safety of the horses must come before profit and tradition, even if it means postponing the Belmont Stakes.

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.