PETA Statement: Two Horses Die in Less Than 24 Hours at Belmont Park

For Immediate Release:
June 11, 2023

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding today’s death of Mashnee Girl in the first race at Belmont Park, less than 24 hours after the death of Excursionniste in the last race on Belmont Stakes day—both had the same trainer, Mark Hennig:

“Two dead Thoroughbreds in two days with the same trainer on the same track means one thing: Belmont Park is failing to protect horses. Like Churchill Downs, Belmont must suspend racing immediately to avoid the same bloodbath. Anything less makes Belmont complicit in the fatalities.”

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.