After the Death of the filly Eight Belles in the Kentucky Derby do you think horse racing should be banned?

Barbaro's injuries weren't as bad as Eight Belles and he lingered for months and never recovered.

Is horse racing cruelty to animals?

PETA activists want to see change in horse racing - USATODAY.com

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"Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, here I am Stuck in the middle with you" - Stealers Wheel

Back in my medic days we used to cover a race track out here. I've never really liked horses, but I was amazed at the sheer power of those racehorses. They're striking creatures.

That said, I never saw any abuse towards the horses. The jockeys seemed to like the horses, and the horses (I'm anthropromorphizing, I know) seemed to get excited for the races. It didn't seem to be torture at all.

Me, I'd not ban horse racing. It should be watched for signs of abuse, but no more than any other activity involving animals.

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omgwtfbbq

What you have is improper breeding, horses with lighter bones in their legs run faster, and their bones break easier.
This horse was sired by a horse that had a short career, due to ankle problems.
As breeders become aware of these problems, they will favor bloodlines with stronger bones.
They can also do MRIs that will reveal microfractures, and I think you'll see more of this.
A couple of rules changes may be indicated, if a horse refuses to get into the gate, they get forced into the gate, but this seems to indicate that there may be something wrong and the horse doesn't want to run, maybe they should just scratch horses that don't want to run.

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"[i] was not involved in seeing any memos, was not involved in any discussions about what was going on."
-- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, March 13, 2007

" I remember discussing with him this process of asking certain U.S. attorneys to resign."
-- Kyle Sampson, former chief of staff to Gonzales, testifying under oath, March 29, 2007

We get this PETA garbage every years in Alaska, they dont want dog mushing, they dont want salmon fishing and they dont want wolf hunting from planes.

But about the horse racing, give it a break. If you need to change the surface they run on I dont care. I really dont like horses myself, but it makes little sense to sensationalize this for a political issue. That jockey was crushed the horse is dead. Its not like they bring the losers out and shoot them.

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Since I'm from just accross the river form Lousiville where the durby is held I can tell you its a big sport around here during the this time period. That being said ifwe accully banned horse racing there would be a lot of jobs lost in the Louisville area, and not just the horse owners and jockies. There is at least four different events that kick off the Durby, which range from the Ballon races to Thunder over Louisville. Each brings in a lot of money to this area.

Guess the point of this post is that while loosing a horse is a bad thing, we should not hinder the lives of thousands of people, just because of a tragedy that costs a horse or two. They say that only 0.004% of all horses involed in the horse racing process are killed. So, sorry PETA, go back to sharing food with a horse, and let us race ours, just consider it jogging for them,

Well put Gispert.
Often times people forget about the human impacts from the chargest PETA makes. As I said in my post, tens of thousands of jobs, and 10s of millions of dollars are dependent on people catching salmon in Alaska. Commercially, sport and subsistence together.

Plus there is this complete lack of regard for the feelings of the people who are around those animals that truly care about those animals and are grief stricken when something bad happens to them. A bunch of years ago, there was a bunch of lower 48ers who showed up to protest the Iditarod under the PETA flag. Well some prankster gave them a dose of thier own medicine by throwing a bucket full of dog piss on them. Im not saying it is right. Just saying it is funny.

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Wolf hunting from planes?

Yeah, I can see objecting to that.

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omgwtfbbq

How is throwing dog urine on someone "funny?"

Did they assault anyone? Or were they just exercising their right to free speech?

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omgwtfbbq

It should never be banned. The rules need to change. These horses are raced too early in their development. For instance, the Breeders Cup is a debutante race for thoroughbreds and they race as 2 year olds. Considering that horses can live to over 30 years old, these are indeed juveniles, and the Breeders Cup even calls these races the juvenile races.

Also consider that the official birthday of every registered thoroughbred is January 1, many of these "2 year olds" are not even a full 2 years.

And, continue to consider that thoroughbreds are usually around 15-17 hands in height. They are a large breed. The larger the breed, the more slowly they mature.

Also, these 2 year olds need to have some intense training before they even make it into the Breeders Cup. This is like making a 3 or 4 year old kid go into Olympic-type training for running track.

These colts and fillies are too young and too underdeveloped to have that kind of stress on their still-developing bones.

IMO, at least 3 years should be added to the minimum age at which a thoroughbred racer can be debuted.

As most thoroughbreds I have known have been track rejects (thank goodness), they generally reach their prime anywhere from 8 years on up to 15-16 years old in the show rings (jumping, hunter class, dressage, eventing). Jumping, in particular, puts more stress on the horses' bones than racing, yet these show horses end up living quite long and healthy lives. And, many of them did not show racing promise at an early enough age so they were lucky to get rejected.

Taking all this into consideration, I argue that we need to give these youngsters more time to grow up and develop more bone mass, before we beat their young bones on the track.

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I am an American. That's the way most of us put it, just matter of factly. They are plain words, those four: you could write them on your thumbnail, or sweep them clear across this bright autumn sky. But remember too, that they are more than just words. They are a way of life. So whenever you speak them, speak them firmly, speak them proudly, speak them gratefully. I am an American. ...a tradition

Ah, but you probably dont know why that happens. So I will take a few minutes and explain. Firstly, wolves are in no way endangered/threatened in Alaska. There is apparently exponentially more wolves in Alaska than the entire lower 48. There are just a few areas it is allowed, by special permit where wolves have seriously encroached on human needs. Namely wolves have come into communities and killed numerous very expensive and well bred sled dogs. They also put lots of pressure on other wildlife that humans use for food(namely moose and caribou). Most places where it is legal to hunt(outside of the %60 of Alaska that is park, refuge, wilderness, monument and otherwise off limits, this is roughly the size of Texas) it is legal to hunt wolves otherwise. So, the state has allowed the areas, most stricken by wolf encounters, where the terrain would otherwise prevent them from be hunted in an efficient enough way from the ground to hunt them from the air.
Now the reality of it, is probably not what your envisioning. This isnt wasting them with an M-60 from a chopper ala Full Metal Jacket. This is two guys in a piper cub, with bolt action rifles taking a set limit of them. After an animal is shot, the pilot and shooter then need to find a place to land and retrieve that wolf. Nothing goes to waste. This is not in any way shape or form, culling them off wholesale, wanton waste or poaching. It is based on actual science from arguably the best wildlife biologists in the nation as an organization.

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But Si Modo, once they hit 4 dont they lose a step? Would a 6 year old be able to hold thier own against a 3 year old. I ask out of ignorance. I live in Alaska. We have 4 horses in the whole damn state! Well a few more, but I am generally ignorant on the development of race horses.

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I'll also add that the regulations put on classifying a thoroughbred as a registered thoroughbred enforces inbreeding.

We are seeing less and less throughbreds in the show rings because they tend to be the dumbest of the breeds, for good reason - they are so inbred. So, it seems that if this practice of racing them so young combined with such control for registry discouraging genetic diversity and the fact that less and less of them are being seen in the show rings (still they are quite prevalent), the breed itself might actually be completely destoyed for lack of use after racing rejection and lack of genetic diversity.

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I am an American. That's the way most of us put it, just matter of factly. They are plain words, those four: you could write them on your thumbnail, or sweep them clear across this bright autumn sky. But remember too, that they are more than just words. They are a way of life. So whenever you speak them, speak them firmly, speak them proudly, speak them gratefully. I am an American. ...a tradition

I'll admit that racing is not my bailiwick. Hunter/jumper/eventing/dressage is more my thing (was, for most of my life, to be more exact).

From this point of view, I see the prime of these animals (and this breed) at at least 8 years old in the ring. Eventing involves cross-country along with ring events, so I still see great speed in this part of eventing.

I'm not really sure what you mean by "loss of step". Could you explain, please?

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I am an American. That's the way most of us put it, just matter of factly. They are plain words, those four: you could write them on your thumbnail, or sweep them clear across this bright autumn sky. But remember too, that they are more than just words. They are a way of life. So whenever you speak them, speak them firmly, speak them proudly, speak them gratefully. I am an American. ...a tradition

PJ, my friend, again, I didnt say it was right, but I, and many Alaskans got a chuckle out of it. But this goes back more than 10 years ago. I am trying to recall all the details after an internet search didnt result in much without me having to pay a hefty price to access archives that old.
But in Anchorage there are two main dog races. The long distance Iditarod and the world sprint championships. The sprints take place during the winter carnival known as fur rondevous or simply fur rondy. Among many many many events are these races where dogs rip through town at very high speeds, (well in the 20mph range.) on blocked off roads with snow trucked in to provide some parts of the race course. Well it stemmed from two seperate instances but came from a raise in tensions created by the PETA folks. They made a big deal about how 50 of them were coming to AK from the east coast to protest all this shit. Then during the fur auction they threw some red liquid on some furs, I know at least one of them was a white polar bear pelt, of course staining it permanently. This resulted in them nearly getting the shit kicked out of them, but also at least one arrest. Then they went on and attempted to block the race route. Which resulted in a female peta gal getting tackled quite hard by while standing in the way.
Then they continued to stay in the state to protest and attempt to block the Iditarod route. Well as a little payback, somebody gave them the drive by dumping.
Again, I dont say its right, but damn its funny. A bucket full of dog piss at getting splashed when its 10 degrees outside make for a quick freeze.

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Thanks for the info, again, I am woefully ignorant about horses. I have been on one two different times. Once when I was quite young, the whole pony ride thing at the carnival, and then when I was an early teen. The teenage experience didnt work out great which is why I will never get on another one again.
But as for a loss of step, its a sports analogy. Oh player XXXX can still get the job done, but has lost a step. Meaning they arent as quick as they used to be.

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Abstinence Education at its finest: