PETA Statement re More Vets at Santa Anita

For Immediate Release:
June 12, 2019

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Greetings from PETA. Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding the announcement that California Horse Racing Board veterinarians will evaluate every horse entering a race at Santa Anita Park:

There should be no more racing anywhere in California until the district attorney’s office completes its investigation. But PETA agrees that there’s a need for independent veterinarians who are not part of the “drug ’em and race ’em” culture of private veterinarians and trainers at many tracks. In addition to performing physical exams, they must review all veterinary and workout records and analyze CT scans as soon as that technology is in place. Horses who need time to recover should not be racing, and trainers who insist on putting vulnerable horses on the track should lose their licenses.

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.