PETA Statement: Senate Rejection of California Horse Racing Board Appointee

For Immediate Release:
April 7, 2021

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding the California State Senate’s vote against the reappointment of Wendy Mitchell to the California Horse Racing Board:

I’ve never had a conversation with Wendy Mitchell, nor has PETA ever contacted her directly, but it has become clear to us in the last several months that the California Horse Racing Board has failed to bring about the promised changes to protect horses. The board has reneged on the whipping ban, failed to suspend racing at Los Alamitos as promised—despite multiple deaths—and taken no action to boot crooked trainers from racing. The board and, apparently, the California legislature remain beholden to the old guard in racing that considers abuse and death to be normal business practices, rather than listening to the public that has demanded change. PETA won’t sit by quietly while the body count mounts. Legislators can expect to hear from our 700,000 supporters in the state.

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.