Racehorses risk fatal finish in a life-and-death gamble

[Karmadillo]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/stories/MYSA052106.1A.dying.racehorses.7e1a7e5.html

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Some horses that are seriously injured and retire will start a new life as an adopted horse of a loving family, or breed future racehorses if they had successful careers.

The unlucky horses, according to activists and a 2001 study by researchers at Colorado State University, will be shipped to a slaughterhouse to be processed for meat. Two slaughterhouses are in Texas, not far from the Lone Star Track near Dallas.

The 300 deaths documented by racing commission vets could be the tip of the iceberg, since those are only the animals killed on race days, activists say.

"For thousands of racehorses that are bred, very few of them ever qualify to race," said Jerry Finch, president of Habitat for Horses, a nonprofit group near Houston. "So there's a number of them that never get to the racetrack, and many of them are slaughtered."

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Patrons are spared the sight of a crippled horse being injected with drugs to stop its breathing. They don't witness an unwanted horse being shipped to a slaughterhouse.

more...

[Caoimhe]

1. I used to work near a sick/injured horse halfway house

the guy would buy the horses/mules for dirt cheap, keep them alive long enough to get their weight up and then sell them for rendering/glue. It was so heartbreaking. These weren't race horses, these were everyday horses, people's old pets and some even had USA tattooed on their flank, and I can only guess they were ex-Forest service horses. What a horrible end. The man didn't dress their wounds or give them medicine, as that cut into his bottom line. Disgusting. It isn't just race horses. In fact, race horses have it pretty good compared to most horses, that stand around in mud and shit all day with no attention paid to them until they get sick or injured.

[jojo54]

2. All in the name of the big green tomatoes.

It's sickening, especially when the story came out 6 or 7 years ago about show jumpers being killed on purpose for the insurance money. That's why it kind of surprised me when I found out months ago that Michael Matz had been training Barbaro.

Gee, I figured that near death experience of his own might make him get out of the business all together......NAH, it's still about money!!

[CottonBear]

3. I don't recall: was Matz indicted for any insurance fraud?

I remember that he carried the flag for the US Olympic team in 1996 in Atlanta. I've never heard anything bad about him regarding show horses.

[1monster]

4. They used to do this in Florida with the Greyhound racing dogs

until public attention was focused on the practice. Now, most Greyhounds that have finished their racing careers are adopted out to people who give them loving homes.

Perhaps, if enough light is thrown on the dark practice of destroying race horses when they don't quite make the grade or their careers finished, they too, can have a happy retirement. Anyone want to start a chain of riding stables?

[deaniac21]

5. more

http://www.fund4horses.org/info.php?id=485

[SoCalDem]

6. Not surprising.. Rich humans have always USED animals

for entertainment and personal enrichment, and when they "tire" of them, the animals are executed and sometimes eaten..

We are the most "evolved" species?

[Coventina]

7. This is the ugly side of horse racing the industry tries to ignore

by showing how well successful racers are treated.


on edit: clarity