PETA Statement: Death of Horse at Santa Anita

For Immediate Release:
January 1, 2020

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding the death of the Thoroughbred Golden Birthday at Santa Anita Park today:

2020 should be the year that either the deaths stop or horse racing does. Right now, racing must be suspended. California officials have made substantial improvements to protect horses, but they’re not done yet. Horses like Golden Birthday, who didn’t live to see his fourth birthday, are still whipped and still administered the powerful diuretic Lasix. CT scan equipment is not yet in place and cruel practices like shockwave therapy have not been banned. The district attorney’s weak investigation isn’t going to stop the fatalities, so we must rely on the governor and the California Horse Racing Board to suspend racing until every possible precaution has been taken to protect horses.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist view of the world. For more information, please visit PETA.org.