Topics For Discussion | Racing | Forum

Thought we could open a new thread where we would bring up important racing topics for debate, or establish personal points of view? My first topic is: Pro-Slaughter vs. Anti-Slaughter — which side of the fence are you on?

 I believe the lesser of evils is euthanasia, not slaughter! Horse slaughter, under ANY circumstances is NOT humane, and the present way the slaughterhouses are conducted is appalling and results in horrific treatment of this revered and historically significant animal! Our dogs and cats have programs to reduce their unwanted reproduction and are humanely euthanized when all hope is lost, so why not the horse who has an equally important place in our society's history? All tracks should ASAP put programs into place to protect their retired racehorses from harm, and severe penalties should be issued to ANY trainer and/or owner, etc. who sells their horse/horses to killer buyers. They should do their best to find appropriate, good homes ( like Rick does ) for their horses and possible new careers for animals no longer deemed suitable racehorses.  Retirement programs at each race track need to be implemented to find homes for the injured and retired racehorses who have no place to go. Owners and breeders, particularly in these hard economic times, need to make better judgments and not bite off more than they can chew. Farms, like Three Chimney's has done, need to step forward and take responsibility for horses that have been in their care. This is an entire industry responsibility and every aspect of the industry along with every individual who makes a living off of the thoroughbred needs to contribute financially and/or with implementation of actions that lead to solutions and humane treatment of this special animal.

katrina said:

jan, it's just not Gonna happen, No pun intended but your "Beating A Dead horse To death"

I cannot Believe that Anyone would be "Pro slaughter" of course everyone would love To see these Beautiful creatures live out there lives in peace! I'm Afraid though, it's just not going to happen. one of the problems is Adoptability. these animals are just too Big for any regular person to Adopt! plus the cost and exspense! cats and dogs go to a shelter were at least some people will come and adopt some of them. we all know what happens to the Rest.

This issue is just part of the Real world that no One wants to talk about. We all know it happens, but we just do not want to Recognize it. I am all for Humane Euthanasia. unforunatly, that will not happen in a society that consumes Horse Meat! you cannot Have thoses Type of drugs in a product that Humans (and I use that term Lightly) Put in their bodies. I understand your passion On this, and believe me I Agree with you! Yet how many of us donate to the ASPCA…..They fight for All Animals!!!

Please don't Blame Horse Racing, or the Owners, Or the Breeders, Or the Tracks. Because even if Horse racing was completely eliminated from the Equasion, then you know what happens next. yes thats right They will Be Bred just for one thing, I Don't Even want to think About it.

Lets all Donate to the ASPCA and tell them we want our Money to go ONLY for Horse Rescue!!!    K.

Hey K…loved the Xmas video! Regarding the horse topic, like Tommy said, sometimes people fall on hard times. Through no fault of their own, they live the heartbreak of their animals starving. Something needs to be done but I don't think slaughter is the answer. The only reason the govt. is doing this is, imo, is to 'up' our domestic product. The country needs some exports and $$$$, and as usual, they came up with this lame excuse. Oh the govt. is transparent all right, you can see right through this one! I think, whether through the breeders, owners, tracks, etc., money should be put aside to euthanize when necessary. (Not just race horses.) The bodies should then be cremated and shipped to a horse cemetery. The govt. owns enough land, especially out in the midwest. A parcel should be set aside for a national horse cemetery so all remains of these beautiful creatures can go back to the plains where they came from. I don't believe in slaughter of any kind. Euthanasia, as a last resort, would be the answer, imo. It would discourage abuse when there is no profit. Hey Bo Derek, how about having your picture taken for a humanitarian/equine reason? That would be the best winners circle you could ever have your picture taken in. (For people unfamiliar, Ms. Derek is an avid horse lover, member of some California horseperson group and she is the blonde lady in every winners circle pic from SA to Hollywood Park to Del Mar. Claim to fame, the movie "10".) There are horse people, movie stars, politicians out there who make enough money to really do something here. Maybe some little old lady will leave her fortune to a good cause like a horse cemetery and shame these people. So sad.  AJ

Agree with you, Tommy. Instead of lifting the ban in the US, Congress should have been working hard to pass the bill to ban the exportation of our horses to foreign slaughterhouses. Don't you just love it when the almighty dollar speaks at the expense of helpless animals who have done nothing but honorably stood by man and served him well. On a practical note, our thoroughbred is not even fit for human consumption with the presence of harmful drugs in their systems. The industry badly needs leaders to take the bull by the horn — leading by example is a start, but horse racing has got to get all aspects involved and doing right by this animal whom they make their living off of! This isn't a time to be sitting or their hands, or leaving it up to the next guy, or saying it's hopeless. Nothing ever got done on this Earth by throwing your hands up before taking action!

The industry is NOT responsible for horses who are not thoroughbreds, I agree with that. But, I totally believe they are responsible and have an obligation to thoroughbreds, the ones they make a living off of. Relationships, whether people-to-people or people-to-horse, are a two-way street and you can't continually ask another living being to give to you, take care of you by providing a living, without giving back and taking care of them. Horse Racing is certainly capable of taking steps to help the equine, find homes for them and contribute to their well-being. There is so much that needs to be done, that can be done with the right leadership, motivation and caring. And if the racing industry does not have the right amount of motivation and caring, then this sport has probably dug a hole so deep it will never get out of. Now is the time to reach out to the thoroughbred, give back, and rise above!

katrina said:

Amen To That!  K.

Hope you all don't think I was picking on the thoroughbred owners. My point was….I have healthy children and grandchildren but I still donate every year to St. Judes because I love children. I bring old stuff to our local animal shelter because I love animals. My point was that all you ever hear the 'winners' say is they 'love these animals'. Well love them all! Help farmers, ranchers, etc. The lucky ones should give back and help the unlucky ones till they can help themselves. While we are at it, we need to dig a mile deep trench around our borders. Like Tommy said, our govt can't keep drug dealers and riff raff out, can't keep the horses in…..what the heck is wrong here? Make a mini Grand Canyon, let the Colorado, Missouri, and Rio Grande Rivers flow till they can't flow anymore. If 'they' make it back and forth then more power to them!! Maybe we can get an addendum attached to the law…a good old earmark…divert some money so that if and when these awful people get caught smuggling horses we can euthanize them too. Is there no one normal left in Washington?  AJ

katrina said:

   I understand that this is a very Difficult subject for anyone to Speak about, yet alone people who share their Love of horses, Raise horses, Race horses,work horses, or just like to watch horses!                                                                                                 
 
I am also not sure that the FHF web-site is the place to Be having this conversation. I'm sure it must make Rick and Everyone Else involved in Horse racing a tad uncomfortable. I want to thank Rick and the rest of the gang at FHF for allowing us to have this conversation, it has Been a very stimulating debate to say the least! It IS a Topic that Needs to be spoken about, just Not sure where we should be having this Conversational debate.
 
So for me, This is Going to Be my Final word on this matter, Does Not mean I am walking away from it, or shying away from it, just Here on this site, will be, more than likely the last time I speak about it. I know some of you are Furiously passionate About this, and are Angry over the fact that this is going on, I don't Blame you, so am I! I think maybe though we need to move this somewhere else perhaps. where, I don't know. This is about the only site I participate in, I don't face book or Tweet or social network or any of that stuff. number one I don't care for them and number two I just do not have the time for All that, This is it! so here goes my last take on the subject of "Horse slaughter". 
 
First of All everyone is acting like all this just started happening. this has been going on since the 70's, perhaps even earlier. we all knew, or should have know what was happening, but it continued like a dark secret, and we just turned our heads, looked the other way.
 
Secondly, a lot of blame has been directed towards the Race Horse owner, and the cry that the owners should save all the horses in the racing Industry!! This is an Unfair Accusation laying blame such as this on the owners. Robert lawrence, Of the Equine Industry program estimates  saving all horses from slaughter would likely cost $400 Million Dollars. and we all know what happens with estimates….you may as well Double them! Who is going to pay for this! I am sure though, that in a Rich country such as ours, the "United States Of America"  we should be able to find the money somewhere! There are About 138 million tax payers in the US. Plus another 6 Million Corporate Companies paying taxes. If you taxed just the corporations an extra $50.00 a year that would bring in $300 Million Dollars! If you taxed the regular people just $5.00 Dollars more on their taxes that would bring in $690 Million Dollars!! That should cover it, No? 
 
Hoses live to Between 25 to 30 years old, weigh Between 900 and 1600 pounds. this large and long living animal is at the Mercy of whoever his owner is. if he had a caring one, then the horse had a good life. what if the owner lost his job, became ill could not afford hay and medical care. we all know what happens, they are left to starve to death. even if the owner had an old Horse humanly Euthanized, you can't Bury a horse, it is illegal almost everywhere, cremating Him is costly and takes up to ten human sized boxes! the fact that they live so long and are so large creates a problem for the horses and those that care about them and those that want to save them!!
 
Yes it's easy to say the Race Horse owners should contribute money to rectify to this problem.  Yet not all owners are wealthy, in reality I don't know if any of them became wealthy from horse racing. If you look at FHf's 2011 stats, their winnings were $2,381,266. but that does not take into account all their cost! trainers, veterinarians, track cost, transportation, boarding and on and on and on, they may, actually be in the Negative! this is after all is said and Done a Business! The ones with the money are the ones who are already Rich!! the Arab oil sheiks, Greek tycoons, Asian exporters, they are the ones with the money!!
 
The real culprit are the Breeders, trying to create the "Perfect horse" supplying Horse racing with a constant influx of horses! 7,000 to 9,000 thoroughbred Horses are killed each year! Ferdinand who won the 1986 Kentucky Derby, the 1987 Breeders’ Cup Classic, the 1987 Eclipse Award Horse of the Year and became a highly sought-after stud horse in 1989, was sold to Japan where he was slaughtered in 2002! The problem too, is an insatiable Appetite by wealthy Europeans and Asians for their consumption of Horse Meat! At Least if the Meat was going to feed Hungry Children in poor countries that are starving and dying, maybe then we wouldn't feel so bad.
 
What we all should do is call your congress man and tell Him or her you want them to support…H.R. 2966, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011 which now has 24 co-sponsors. you can find you congressman's Phone numbers by clicking on this link and entering your zip code……

http://action.humanesociety.or…..73.app304b

 
Also let us not forget, everyday the jockeys go out the and put there life on the line, they can be paralyzed for life, sustain severe head injuries, yet they climb on those horses everyday. they have no Health insurance, no retirement plan, they too are victims.
please also don't forget for every I-phone or I-pad you buy, every time you go to wal-mart and buy a pair of pants or shirt, shoes, theses were all made by women and children basically being held prisoner in China and india working long hours for little or no pay!!
every thing we or others do in life has a consequence, avertly or inavertly!
For every action there is a reaction:
Happy….Sad
Pleasure….pain
Laughter…. Cry
Glad…. Mad 
Life ….Death 
 
I share the outrage and pain many of you are feeling over this issue. The Best we can do is to tell our congressmen you do not want horse slaughtering to continue in the United states and you also DO not want the transportation of Horses out of America!! This at least will stop the needless slaughter of horses here on our shores!! But remember it will continue to be carried out in other countries, solely for the sake of consumption.
 
But lets not hold the Horse racing industry out to dry for this, they just happen to be connected with a much larger problem that is out there.   K. 

 
      
  
 
 
 
You are right K. Done!   AJ
       
                                                                                                                         

Well you don't want to know what I think of that stupid show Luck. On a much more normal and pleasant note, there is a very nice article today at DRF about Mrs. Benoit and Star Guitar. A must read for those of us not swaying in an alternate reality. Lovely human interest story. AJ

The price is market based. You price at a value that should get you a book of at least 100 mares. If you only get 40 or 50 you may have to drop your price, if you get 140 to 175 you should raise your price.So far in La. $4,500.00 is about top dollar for a stud fee. I'm sure someone will break through that barrier soon.

They won't all deliver live foals. 75 to 80 live foals from 100 booked mares would be good results. Can you  imagine Bernidini at his fee ? That is why so many good young horses are retired so early.

So glad to hear about this heart-warming story of a 9 year old boy from NH speaking out against horse slaughter and taking letters to Washington!

http://www.paulickreport.com/n…..slaughter/