Trainer for Eight Belles doesn't blame sport for filly's death

FACTS:
The horse racing industry causes thousands of horses to be born only to be slaughtered or abandoned to an existence of neglect, starvation, and suffering. There are three reasons for this:
Very large numbers must be produced annually to generate a few fast ones to be selected to compete. Of the many thousands bred to race, very few make the grade. The rest must be disposed of.
During training or racing, injuries are common. Injured horses are also euthanized or sold from one owner to another into increasingly worse conditions.
When race horses have finished their career - usually at a very early age, before they are fully mature - they, too, must be disposed of. Their numbers exceed by far the number of humane retirement facilities.
Race horses frequently suffer injuries because they are forced to train and race before their skeletal system has finished growing.
To compete in the races with the largest purses — which are for 2 and 3 year olds — horses must be trained and raced at too young an age, before their bones’ growth plates have matured. This causes many lower-limb ailments and injuries, including fractures, pulled ligaments, and strained tendons. Such injuries are common in horse racing.
Riding horses are started at 3-4 years old, while race horses are often started as young as 1.5 years. Riding horses are brought along slowly and with as little stress to their still-maturing joints as possible, while race horses are forced to run beyond their limits, pounding their still-developing joints into the ground. When the riding horse is just entering his prime, the race horse is ending his career, and possibly his life.
One study showed that for every 22 races, at least one horse suffers an injury severe enough to prevent him or her from finishing a race. Another study estimated that 800 Thoroughbreds die from racing-related injuries every year in North America. Most owners are not willing to pay high veterinary fees for an injured horse who is unlikely to ever race again, and instead, choose to euthanize the animal.
Horses are forced to race even while injured, causing enormous suffering. Many horse owners are either unwilling or unable to provide expensive veterinary care for a horse who may not be successful enough to earn his or her keep. Even when owners do provide veterinary care, they typically do not allow the horse sufficient time for recovery. Instead, they send the horse out to train or race on still-unhealed limbs.
Since the profit-making motive, not animal welfare, is the priority, horses are drugged so they can race even when injured. A recent front page New York Times article listed the most common ways used to enhance a race horse’s performance: bronchodilators to widen air passages, hormones to increase oxygen-carrying red blood cells, cone snail or cobra venom injected into a horse’s joints to ease pain and stiffness, and a "milkshake" of baking soda, sugar, and electrolytes delivered through a tube in the horse’s nose to increase carbon dioxide in the horse’s bloodstream and lessen lactic-acid buildup, warding off fatigue. The article noted that batteries are even concealed under a horse’s skin that deliver a shock when the horse is flagging. Laboratories cannot detect every one of thousands of illegal drugs.
The unnatural stresses inherent in competing so aggressively and at such a young age also cause or make worse other serious problems, such as stomach ulcers, heart murmurs, and bleeding in the lungs, not observed in horses worked at reasonable levels. These health and injury problems once again necessitate the use of drugs to maintain the horse’s racing value (but not well-being).
Read more at:
http://www.chai-online.org/en/compassion/ente...

Bonny, I know you are upset, but I doubt that you can prove that PETA kills animals. If you knew anything about them you would know they are advocates of the animals and RIGHT now RACE HORSES need an advocate. I am sorry that you are so upset at everyone, but this forum is NOT all about you, it is about EIGHT BELLES and those horses that have suffered a similar fate as her. Perhaps you should check out another forum that better suits your attitude.Noone is impressed and maybe you need to get back on your meds.

For those who have no read it, here is PETA's mission statement. Any organization this large is going to have alot of people against it because there are lots of people making money off the abuse of animals.I am not a member of PETA, but I support them on the horse racing issue!

PETA MISSION STATEMENT

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), with more than 1.8 million members and supporters, is the largest animal rights organization in the world.

PETA focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: on factory farms, in laboratories, in the clothing trade, and in the entertainment industry. We also work on a variety of other issues, including the cruel killing of beavers, birds and other "pests," and the abuse of backyard dogs.

PETA works through public education, cruelty investigations, research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement, and protest campaigns

Liz wrote:

Bonny, I know you are upset, but I doubt that you can prove that PETA kills animals. If you knew anything about them you would know they are advocates of the animals and RIGHT now RACE HORSES need an advocate. I am sorry that you are so upset at everyone, but this forum is NOT all about you, it is about EIGHT BELLES and those horses that have suffered a similar fate as her. Perhaps you should check out another forum that better suits your attitude.Noone is impressed and maybe you need to get back on your meds.

It has been reported that "PETA’s kill rate is higher than any animal shelter in the country."

Does that make it true? No. Do I know for a fact that that statement is true? No. Do you know for a fact that it is not? No.

I have seen many of these peta heads on this forum run their mouth and say things that they must (if they have a functioning brain) know are absolute lies. How could that possibly help their cause? That is one reason so many people view them as kooks and make fun of them. They do not seem to have any sense of reality, or reason, whatsoever.

I love animals myself, likely as much as any peta head out there, but I try to be real. If peta would try to stay real and deal with actual facts, instead of making up lies their case would be much more likely to have a real affect and enhance the lives of animals.

That is what they claim to be in business for, right? Key word being CLAIM.........

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has a mission statement too. I have no personal experience with him, but I do have personal experience with peta.

I believe he is as full of crap and himself as peta is..........

One would think that "the largest animal rights organization in the world" might pull in major bucks frokm concerned humans.

Wonder where ALL that propaganda money goes?

I think that we need to focus on the attention PETA can bring to the atrocity of thoroughbred breeding and racing. I have said this before- We are all here blogging because of Eight belles fatal "accident". Many of us are outraged and many of us are becoming better informed! Can anyone JUSTIFY a most -likely 2 yr old filly (seeing they all have the same B.day date of Jan. 1st. By the way- how many family members of yours have a generic birthday date??)running her heart out in a typically male race-breaking her front legs after placing 2nd??--PEOPLE!!

This is an excellent article with the exception of the error which states "Barbaro suffered a shattered front leg in the 2006 Preakness" when in fact it was the right rear.

To xoxo Eight Belles, i am 110% with you. You cannot put it better. Thiss beautiful horse died because of greed and nothing else. She was a filly, too young. This horses are born to run. Everyone pushed her and she pushed herself to fit with the big boys. She gave away her heart and guts on this race. This greedy people don't care for anything but money and fame. Wow...they are still looking for clues to try to find out what happened. That is pure BS.
I love horses. They are the most loyal, beautiful animals. I hope eight belles is now galloping free...

http://www.animalsaustralia.org/issues/horse_...

exploited and then discarded.. please, dont bet on cruelty..

Wondering wrote:

<quoted text>
It has been reported that "PETA’s kill rate is higher than any animal shelter in the country."
Does that make it true? No. Do I know for a fact that that statement is true? No. Do you know for a fact that it is not? No.
I have seen many of these peta heads on this forum run their mouth and say things that they must (if they have a functioning brain) know are absolute lies. How could that possibly help their cause? That is one reason so many people view them as kooks and make fun of them. They do not seem to have any sense of reality, or reason, whatsoever.
I love animals myself, likely as much as any peta head out there, but I try to be real. If peta would try to stay real and deal with actual facts, instead of making up lies their case would be much more likely to have a real affect and enhance the lives of animals.
That is what they claim to be in business for, right? Key word being CLAIM.........

Wondering, please provide proof about the PETA kill rate,I am not buying it, prove it! You sound like you have your own agenda. At least PETA is going after those who need to be put in check and I am sure that is why they are so unpopular with some people. No organization is perfect, but it obvious they do more good than others, when it comes to animals. I am not a member of PETA, but I support them in this effort. There has been corruption and animal abuse in this sport for years.

I found this which explains PETAS euthanasia.

Where do these "undesirables" go? To those shelters that, like PETA, will do the heartbreaking job of euthanasia. In San Francisco, that place is the Department of Animal Care and Control. In other words, DACC is left to do the area's dirty work. In fiscal year 2003-2004, DACC euthanized 1,436 dogs and cats.

Critics may condemn PETA for supporting euthanasia, but we are not ashamed of providing a merciful exit from an uncaring world to broken beings. We know that we are also working at the roots of a problem, persuading people that buying puppies and kittens from pet stores and breeders means that other animals, literally dying for a home in a shelter, pay for with their lives.

Most important, every time we spay or neuter an animal -- and we sterilized more than 7,600 dogs and cats in southern Virginia and North Carolina last year alone -- we prevent the births of four times its number right off the bat. Three animal generations down the line, that means we prevented the births of nearly half a million animals, which, given the "throwaway rate," means countless thousands were never born only to be euthanized.

We all want to save animals. The way to do that is to prevent the births of more dogs and cats. Leaving euthanasia to someone else solves nothing.

Daphna Nachminovitch is director of the Domestic Animals Issues and Abuse Department for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (http://www.peta.org).

Liz wrote:

<quoted text>
Wondering, please provide proof about the PETA kill rate,I am not buying it, prove it! You sound like you have your own agenda. At least PETA is going after those who need to be put in check and I am sure that is why they are so unpopular with some people. No organization is perfect, but it obvious they do more good than others, when it comes to animals. I am not a member of PETA, but I support them in this effort. There has been corruption and animal abuse in this sport for years.

My post was not that hard to understand. Look up each word individually in a dictionary if you had problems with it.......

I found a site

http://www.kentuckyoaks.com/2008/contenders/e...

that showed charts and race videos for all the horses in the derby this year. Eight Belles barely won her last 2 races. She earned about 324,000 in in her 9 races prior to the Derby (400,000 at the Derby) with an average mile time of about 1.37 in the races she won (her best was 1.34.26 at oaklawn).. She Ran the mile in the Derby in just under 1.37 - near even with Big Brown at that point..

Big Brown simply ran away with all three of his starts prior to the Derby. He earned about 650,000 (600,000 at the Florida Derby). 1.34.46 on turf at Saratoga... His average mile was about 1.35. Of course he started at number 20 at the Kentucky Derby so who knows how far he'd really run by the Mile mark. While Eight Belles got out of the 5th gate very quickly and was near the rail the whole way.

If she'd raced Big Brown again he'd likely beat her - he seems be in a class by himself. As was Eight Belles as a filly! And, wasn't it great to see her kick all the other guys butts at the end of the race! She was a true class act with all the heart in the world! I hope her passing brings some reform to her sport - I hope she didn't die in vain.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/australia...

Of the 17,000 thoroughbreds born last year only about two-thirds will ever make it to the racetrack.

Of those, most suffer injuries or do not run fast enough and only about 1 to 3 per cent make it to top events

"They can smell the blood and they are killed one after another and they can see the horse in front of them killed so they know what is going on.

"People get upset when they see a racehorse break down on the track that has to be shot but for every one of those horses there are thousands before it that never make it that far."

"The racing industry really turns its back on what happens to the horses."

Sport of Kings?
The horse-racing industry is no different to any other animal industry. It values animals on the basis of financial ‘return’. The ethics of any gambling industry are questionable – but when the gamble is with flesh and blood, there will inevitably be very few ‘winners’ and many losers. The drive for financial and personal success and glory is about return for trainers and owners – not the horses. At best, horses lead an unnatural and restricted life whilst racing, and at worst end up as ‘wastage’. The ‘glory’ that once beckoned is a far cry from the slaughterhouse that awaits most unsuccessful racehorses—the fancy racing name a long distant memory...

For you, horse racing trainers, breeders, jockeys and owners, whatever you say to try to make it look good, is only pure BS.

Get in here and watch this video. It makes me sick..

http://www.animalsaustralia.org/issues/horse_...

gabby, great article -thanks. I am not ready to watch the video.:(
We should all be ashamed that this is going on!!
How can we truly make a difference??

Le Le...When I saw the video it made me cry. It is a shame that such good animals end up that way..So hopeless..after serving and being pushed. And being abused. They didn't ask to be born. They didn't ask to be racers. They dont care about fame, or money. It is sad that we the human race, can be so cruel. I dont know who can stop this. Emails the authorities? I dont know...