The injuries are just as sickening when the horses aren’t famous, when they race at older, smaller tracks or at county fairs. You just don’t hear about them. A cheap claiming horse who is run too hard is doomed to break down sooner or later. It may be on the track, when a tendon blows or a bone snaps, or it may be after too many years of too many races. At some point, worn-out horses stop winning.
These horses, the ones who aren’t euthanized on the track, as Eight Belles was, face a different kind of death. Most of them wind up as the main course on a European dinner table. The years of running are rewarded with a captive bolt to the brain.
What is the difference between this and dogfighting? Perhaps the race itself isn’t as overtly violent as what happens when two dogs are set upon each other. Perhaps the trainers of horses and the “trainers” of dogs run in different social circles. But both of these “sports” are about exploiting animals until they’re no longer profitable or useful. Both usually result in an early and sometimes horrendous death.
Take the veneer off thoroughbred racing and the reality beneath is as grotesque as anything Michael Vick was castigated for. Racing horses are routinely drugged, whipped, pushed to the literal breaking point and then cast off to be killed, butchered and sold off by the piece. Even thoroughbreds Excellor and Ferdinand, champions who were cheered by thousands, were led up the slaughterhouse ramp when they were no longer useful.
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