Can I rant about horse racing?

[Coventina]

Today's tragedy at the Preakness should WAKE PEOPLE UP!

Sure, horses "love to run" and they are competitive with each other.
But I am more and more convinced that horse racing, in ALL its forms, is cruel.

I hope Barbaro's life can be saved. Sadly, it won't be saved because he deserves to live, but because he'll be valuable in breeding more slaves for human entertainment.

Check out this quote from the Sports Illustrated story:

"It's like a kick in the gut for everybody," Bramlage said. "Everybody was such a fan of this horse. He was such a great athlete. It's the same thing when a star football player goes down or a basketball player injures his knee. It just puts a damper on the entire enthusiasm of the crowd."

Yeah, just like a football player, except that humans don't face euthanasia and/or the slaughterhouse for breaking their legs.

:mad:

[flvegan]

1. I missed it. What happened?

[Coventina]

2. The favorite, Barbaro, broke one of his ankles, shortly after the start

I was watching, I admit, because my husband had turned it on.

I *used* to like horse racing, because I loved the horses.....I disapprove, but I can't seem to look away if it's on.

Anyway, it's a life-threatening injury. He's going to need surgery, at the very least. And his career is definitely over, though I'm not broken up over that.

[flvegan]

3. Yin/Yang

The animals are magnificent, I agree. I won't ever watch, but it should kind of put folks in a mindset of respect towards these powerful animals.

Career over? Good problem to have. Hopefully. At least for him. He'll likely be put out to stud. Downside...he's still somewhat exploited, and continuing a bloodline in an exploitive industry.

For him, specifically, a Godsend. Otherwise, not so much.

[LeftyMom]

4. I was at a football game where a player got a bad compound fracture once

Really bad- everybody in the staduim heard the guy's leg pop and from waaaaaaaaaay back at the very last row of the lower level where my family's seats were at the time one could see bone sticking out. Nasty nasty nasty injury. That guy (and for some reason I'm brain farting on who it was now, this was with the 49ers sometime during the 90's, the injury was at Candlestick on a really nice day but I can't remember the name) not only got rehabbed but he played again, and even if he hadn't he chose to be there and to take that risk. A horse can't weigh the risks and make a decision, a human being's team never has to negotiate with insurance to decide if it's worth trying to save his life or not, nor is a human being facing euthanasia if his leg can't be repaired.

So no, it's not a damn thing like football.

But it's good to know they're already thinking how this horse can be economically valuble to them as a stud if they save his life. :eyes: Surely he shouldn't be saved just because he deserves it or because he destroyed his body doing his best for them. :grr:

[Branjor]

5. I just saw the movie "Dreamer"

It is based on a true story about a racehorse named Mariah's Storm who broke her cannonball joint, a life threatening injury. She was rehabilitated and raced again, winning 10 out of 16 of her lifetime races. She is apparently presently retired and bred another champion. I was really touched and fascinated by the movie despite my strong feelings against horse racing. I have seen horse racing at Monmouth Park and years ago at Saratoga but since coming to learn about the cruelty of the "sport" I will never go again.

I hope Barbaro's life can be saved.

[Branjor]

10. That was cannon bone....

No such thing as a "cannonball joint". :blush:

[Critters2]

6. Well, I don't think animals should be ridden, as I've said here before

It's exploitative to the core.

Are you sure the horse will be bred? The horse industry is awfully quick to "put animals down" when they can't run.

Horses suffer terribly at the hands of humans

[Coventina]

7. Right now his survival is in doubt.

If he's "lucky" he'll be used for stud.

[Coventina]

8. From the Washington Post article:

For a sport that struggles to attract new fans and retain its old ones, the events at Pimlico could not have been more devastating. Those of us who remember Ruffian know how such a calamity can affect the national psyche. Racing was riding high in the mid-1970s after Secretariat swept the Triple Crown. And in the wake of Secretariat appeared a charismatic and electrifying fast filly. Ruffian dominated members of her own sex before her match race against Foolish Pleasure, the colt who had won the Kentucky Derby. It was a battle of the sexes that galvanized the nation, and when Ruffian snapped her leg after running an eighth of a mile, the nation recoiled in horror. After the filly was euthanized, countless would-be fans turned away from the sport.

Regardless of Barbaro's ultimate fate, many fans in 2006 will have the same reaction as their counterparts in 1975. They will find it difficult to watch a thoroughbred race or muster enthusiasm for the sport for a long, long time.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12893351/

[Branjor]

9. I remember the Ruffian story....

:cry:

[Raine]

11. I saw the tape with the horse

after he broke his leg, it literally brings me to tears :cry: cause you can see how badly it hurts him. :cry:

[Branjor]

12. Adding to the rant about horse racing....

Horatio Nelson was euthanized yesterday after breaking down close to the finish line in the Vodafone English Derby. The horse broke a cannon bone, a sesamoid bone and dislocated a fetlock joint in his right foreleg, but there were open wounds, and damage to blood vessels, nerves and ligaments around a potentially infected joint and five veterinary surgeons at the scene decided it was in the colt's best interests to put him down. There were questions about his fitness to run prior to the race.

http://www.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=33842

I am also convinced that horse racing in ALL its forms is cruel.

:cry: :cry:

[Coventina]

13. DAMMIT! How can people see something like that, and not realize that

maybe there is something wrong with what they are supporting?!?!?!

Hello, McFly?!?!?!

:mad:

[BrklynLiberal]

14. Humans using animals for their entertainment and financial gain is always

disgusting...no matter how "well taken care of" they are.