Image: Undercover Video Reveals the Darker Side of Horse Racing

 

Around 24 horses die every week on U.S. racetracks. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/us/death-and-disarray-at-americas-racetracks.html

Horse racing’s fatality rate has increased 30 percent or 40 percent over the last 20 years, according to Dr. Rick Arthur, the equine medical director of the California Horse Racing Board. https://slate.com/culture/2012/05/kentucky-derby-2012-is-it-time-to-ban-horse-racing.html

 

 

Horses often start racing when they’re just 2 years old. Their bones are still growing and their young bodies cannot handle the impact of being forced to gallop full speed down a hard track, so they are more susceptible to injury than older horses.

 

 

Instead of letting the horses rest and recover from their injuries, owners hire trainers and veterinarians to dope the horses with drugs so they can be forced to keep on racing. This puts the horse in worse pain and often results in deadly physical injury. https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/03/the-ugly-truth-about-horse-racing/284594/

 

 

Horses are herd animals—they are naturally social and in order to thrive they need the companionship of other horses and friends. In races, they spend up to 23 hours a day in a stall and are constantly being transported to different racetracks. Their lives are isolated and alone. https://nypost.com/2019/05/23/finally-standing-up-to-the-horrors-of-horse-racing/

 

 

 

Most horses who don’t win races or who stop winning often get shipped to Canada, Mexico, or Japan to be slaughtered for their meat. Many horses killed are very young, just 5 or 6 years old, even though the horse lifespan is 30 years or more. Slaughterhouse conditions are often brutal and inhumane. https://www.humanesociety.org/all-our-fights/preventing-horse-slaughter

 

 

 

Thousands of racehorses are slaughtered for their meat in America and Europe every year. They often become dog food. Thousands more languish in abandoned paddocks, many starving and neglected. https://aidanimals.com/animal-cruelty/horse-abuse/#section-1

 

 

A Gallup poll found that 38 percent of Americans supported banning animal racing. https://news.gallup.com/poll/107293/postderby-tragedy-38-support-banning-animal-racing.aspx

More and more people each year want horse racing banned.