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

And why they end up at the slaughterhouses? Because they are non profitable..

“It’s all about the prestige that comes with claiming the title.” Greedy people...

http://beat.bodoglife.com/horseracing/speed_v...

"I think we're breeding a faster horse, more speed-oriented," said Geoffrey Russell, the director of sales at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/horse/triple...

too sad..

http://www.ntra.com/blog.aspx...

Those of you who care, please take a moment to take action. This is a chance for your voice to be heard and to make a difference. Even if you do not agree with PETA on other issues, they are on the right track with this one.

http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/eight_bell...

By the way Wondering, if you have a problem understanding my post just ignore it, I really don't want any answers from someone as close minded as you. Thanks.

Gabby... I just watched the video too and I too cried. Then I went outside, hugged my two spoiled boys, and gave them some extra oats.

I hate to say this and I hope this comes out right but if Eight Belles was going to suffer a fate similar to what that movie depected, perhaps she's better off going out the way she did. She was treated really well 'til her end came and when the end came it came quickly. It appears she was spared from terrible future once she was no longer productive.

With the huge bucks that are at stake, who cares if some horses die ? It's an INDUSTRY. Stop it with the crying and bleeding of the hearts. Millions are at stake and the horses are just the means to a huge payday.

Gary wrote:

Gabby... I just watched the video too and I too cried. Then I went outside, hugged my two spoiled boys, and gave them some extra oats.
I hate to say this and I hope this comes out right but if Eight Belles was going to suffer a fate similar to what that movie depected, perhaps she's better off going out the way she did. She was treated really well 'til her end came and when the end came it came quickly. It appears she was spared from terrible future once she was no longer productive.

yeah, at least she is free now...

hanks Liz glad to see I'm not alone here. Bonnyoshea is nothing more than the worst kind of troll. Like a five year old without his ritalin you won't shut the little bastard up. I am trying to ignore the little insect, they hate that more than anything. Eventually topix might come to their senses & ban the piece of infectuous human waste bonnyoshea!

Liz wrote:

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

Race Horse Abuse & Slaughter References
1) Ted Miller,“Six Recent Horse Deaths at Emerald Downs Spark Concern,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer 8 May 2001.
2) Bill Finley,“Sadly, No Way to Stop Deaths,” New York Daily News 10 Jun. 1993.
3) Sherry Ross,“Fans Are Buying In,” Daily News 1 Jun. 2003.
4)“The Odds Are You’ll Lose: Owning a Racehorse,” Financial Times 1 Feb. 2003.
5) Glenn Robertson Smith,“Why Racehorses Are Cracking Up,” The Age (Australia) 15 Nov. 2002.
6) Miller.
7) Tim Reynolds,“Technology Can’t Prevent Horse Injuries,” The Lexington Herald-Leader 30 Aug. 2001.
8) Andrew Beyer,“A Beyer’s Guide for Racehorses,” The Washington Post 3 Jun. 2003.
9) William C. Rhoden,“An Unknown Filly Dies, and the Crowd Just Shrugs,” The New York Times 25 May 2006.
10) Rhoden.
11) Reynolds.
12) John Packett,“Track Trauma: Sesamoid Bone Injuries Are Common and a Leading Cause of Death at Colonial Downs,” Richmond Times-Dispatch 19 Jul. 2007.
13) John Packett,“Four Horses Die in Five Days at Downs,” Richmond Times-Dispatch 8 Jul. 2007.
14) Packett,“Four Horses Die in Five Days at Downs.”
15) John Scheinman,“Horses, Drugs Are Racing’s Daily Double; No Uniform Policy in Industry,” The Washington Post 27 Apr. 2003.
16) Janet Patton,“HBPA Proposes Uniform Policy on Drugs in Racing; Horsemen’s Group Targets Maze of State Rules,” The Lexington Herald-Leader 17 Oct. 2001.
17) Max Watman,“So Far, So Good for Barbaro,” The New York Sun 21 May 2006.
18) Scheinman.
19) Peat Bee,“Cut the Poppycock and Treat Drugs With Horse Sense,” The Guardian 13 Jan. 2003.
20) Alex Straus,“Dark Horses,” Maxim May 2002.
21) Tom Keyser,“Gill Is Still Permitted to Stable, Race Horses at Pimlico, Laurel,” The Baltimore Sun 6 Apr. 2003.
22)“Trainer, Vet Charged in Trotter’s Death,” Associated Press, 22 Apr. 2001.
23) Straus.
24) Skip Hollandsworth,“The Killing of Alydar,” Texas Monthly Jun. 2001.
25) Straus.
26) Barbara Bayer,“1986 Kentucky Derby Winner Ferdinand Believed to Have Been Slaughtered in Japan,” The Blood-Horse Magazine 26 Jul. 2003.
27) Allen G. Breed,“And What of the Spent Racehorse?” Associated Press, 25 Nov. 1999.
28) Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,“Horsemeat Slaughtered/Prod Animals (Head),” 2006.
29) Gerard Shields,“Landrieu Bill Backs Horses. Senate Bill Would Ban Consumption Slaughter,” The Advocate 9 Jul. 2007.
30) K. McGee et al.,“Characterizations of Horses at Auctions and in Slaughter Plants,” Colorado State University Department of Animal Sciences, 2001.
31) Todd J. Gillman,“Judge Won’t Stop Slaughterhouses; Appeal Weighed,” The Dallas Morning News 14 Mar. 2006.
32) C.L. Stull,“Responses of Horses to Trailer Design, Duration, and Floor Area During Commercial Transportation to Slaughter,” Journal of Animal Science 77 (1999): 2925-33.
33) Josh Harkinson,“Horse Flesh: Texas Struggles With What to Do with Its Overabundance of Equus caballus While Europeans Wait With Open Mouths,” Houston Press 13 Apr. 2006.
34) Kris Axtman,“Horse-Meat Sales Stir Texas Controversy,” Christian Science Monitor 28 Apr. 2003.
35) Rich Hofmann,“Racing Brings Up the Rear in Safety,” Philadelphia Daily News 23 May 2006.

HERE IS ANOTHER PETITION SITE TO MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!!! Please take action, we can make difference in many horses lives if care enough to take action.

http://tinyurl.com/5o82t4

It's interesting to note that with all the genentics and breeding in order to obtain favorable horse characteristics that will allow a horse to run faster, the average Derby speeds and winning times the last 10 years are slower than the average speeds and times for the previous 50 year period.

http://www.scienceagainstevolution.org/v3i9f....

The winning time this year was 122. In 1914 the winning time was 123. In 1941 the winning time was 121... There are many times since 1941 that are equal or better than this years winning time. Secretariat has the record of 119 back in 1973 - how many lengths is 3 seconds?

So, it looks like breeding for speed isn't working and perhaps is backfiring and creating slightly slower horses who are on average less sturdy too.

Gary, the writing is certainly on the wall.
It seems the Thoroughbred race horse has been overbred and interbred. Looking at Eight Belles' bloodline one can not deny this. Truly Shameful!

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/horse/triple...

Statement from Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO of The HSUS, on Kentucky Derby Death

May 5, 2008

Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, issued the following statement on the horse racing industry following the tragic death of Kentucky Derby finisher Eight Belles:

“This industry has not had a rigorous critic to set it in the straight and narrow, and major problems have grown and festered.

Here are some of the historic problems:

--Drugging of injured horses to keep them running, which makes vulnerable horses more susceptible to breakdowns. Racing horses too young. Because the marquee events feature 3-year-olds, these horses must start racing at the tender age of 2 years, well before skeletal systems are sturdy enough to endure pounding from rigors of race tracks.

--Racing horses on track surfaces that are not forgiving – with American tracks favoring dirt surfaces over grass or synthetics.

--Breeding too many horses, & waiting for someone else to clean up the problem. Breeding horses for body characteristics that make them vulnerable to breakdowns, especially those "spindly legs" underneath these stout torsos.”
__________
The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization – backed by 10.5 million Americans, or one of every 30.

For more, read Pacelle’s blog on this topic: Alarm Bells over Eight Belles.
http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/pr...

"They Love To Run"

Here are a few key points about how this works, and there’s lots more info on this horseracing factsheet:

1. Nobody “loves to run” when they’re suffering from bleeding lungs or painful leg injuries, but that doesn’t stop trainers from pumping these animals full of drugs to mask the pain, enhance their performance and just plain keep them going.

2. We are getting calls and faxes about all kinds of cocktail mixes that "are common knowledge in the back stretch." Sometimes people are caught and suspended when they’re careless—as was the case with this veterinarian who got busted for injecting cobra venom into a horse as a nerve blocking agent. For real.

3. Why was Eight Belles so fragile? Well, horses begin training when their skeletal systems are still growing, and they’re completely unable to deal with pounding their limbs into jelly on a hard track at high speeds.

3. Don't tell me that all those people who "really know about horses" didn't have an inkling that this filly - a filly, no less - was a high risk for serious injuries like the ones she sustained. But she was raced anyway. Any gue$$es as to why?

4. As I mentioned before, horses that don’t make the cut get shipped off to slaughterhouses. The fact that anybody who knows this would still have the gall to comment on this blog saying that these animals are “treated better than most humans” is just too depressing to even think about.
__________

For better or for worse, Eight Belles is now a very public representative of an industry that’s rotten to its rotten core. My only hope is that people will keep looking deeper into the way these horses are treated. And don’t dare try and tell me that they like it.

Peta files