Peta opinion on Eight Belles and Horse Racing in general...

<TABLE class=sectionhead style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #e1e1e1 2px solid" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=660 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=27>Viewpoints, Outlook </TD><TD class=dateline noWrap></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
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-->The filly Eight Belles is examined on the track after the running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. The horse, which finished second in the race, was euthanized after breaking both ankles.
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May 6, 2008, 11:15PM
Eight Belles tolled death knell for the sport of kings
Filly's gruesome death at Derby track is the last straw

By KATHY GUILLERMO

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<!-- rbox ends here --><!-- Mille Photo Reference Type: image ID: 8329474 Width: 150 Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS Caption: EIGHT BELLES TOLL The filly Eight Belles is examined on the track after the running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. The horse, which finished second in the race, was euthanized after breaking both ankles. end of Photo -->For years, on behalf of PETA, I've written polite opinion pieces urging the thoroughbred racing industry to take steps to make the sport more humane.
As someone who used to show horses, play polo, hang out at race tracks in Missouri, Ohio and California and who was at Churchill Downs when another filly, Winning Colors, raced to victory at the 1988 Kentucky Derby, I felt certain that eventually improvements would come: Synthetic tracks would replace hard dirt tracks, whipping would be banned and thoroughbred owners could be persuaded to take responsibility for their spent horses.
But after seeing Eight Belles lying in the dirt at Churchill Downs, something inside me snapped — just as surely as that beautiful filly's ankles. When a sport becomes as deadly for horses as dogfighting is for pit bulls, it's time to close it down.
Eight Belles, who now lies cold and dead in Kentucky, is just the latest in a line of thoroughbreds whose famous lineage and expensive training couldn't prevent a painful and premature end. The Triple Crown and other big races have become the graveyards of too many horses who were called champions: Go For Wand, who went down in the 1990 Breeders' Cup Distaff — and then stumbled up and tried to keep running, her broken leg dangling. Union City, who fractured a leg in the 1993 Preakness and was destroyed. Prairie Bayou, who that same year suffered a compound fracture in the Belmont Stakes and was destroyed. George Washington, who was euthanized after breaking his leg while running the Preakness last year.
And of course Barbaro, the poster horse of the racing industry's failures and excesses, who despite heroic efforts could not be saved from the injuries he sustained during the 2006 Preakness. Those injuries were terrible — fractures of his canon bone, sesamoids and long pastern as well as the dislocation of his fetlock joint.
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.
The mint juleps, the fancy hats and the stirring rendition of My Old Kentucky Home are a silly bit of play-acting that serves as a front for a lot of pain and ugly death. We need to stop pretending that there's anything majestic about the "sport of kings" and recognize it as the cruelty that it is.
<BQ quote-source=""><!-- A resource box here --></BQ>Guillermo is director of the Laboratory Investigations Department at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (www.PETA.org.)

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PETA is lame...

NBC made correct call to not air Eight Belles' agony

By Michael Hiestand, USA TODAY
NBC producer Sam Flood says it wasn't an accident that the network's Kentucky Derby coverage didn't show runner-up Eight Belles' final moments Saturday.
Flood, in a Sunday interview, said he and his colleagues in NBC's production truck had close-ups of the injured filly it could have chosen to show: "She was writhing. It was gruesome. I elected not to go to it for the simple reason it's not something I'd like my wife or children at home to see."
That was the correct call, albeit the safe one. While showing the horse's agony would have injected more reality into coverage that included a bit too much celebration of funny hats and rich guys, it's good NBC decided Eight Belles' pain wasn't something that had to be shown to everyone.

LOPRESTI: Eight Belles' death prompts questions

Still, it would have been helpful to have seen more angles on Eight Belles stumbling, after finishing the race. That might have explained why it happened. NBC aired a replay from its overhead blimp shot. But, says Flood, Eight Belles wasn't one of the eight horses that NBC had chosen for isolated camera coverage and, with cameras also routinely pointed at the winner after races, "replay-wise, we had nothing." Online, NBC posted about 10 seconds of aerial footage showing the filly falling down.
Two years ago, Preakness viewers saw more of what eventually proved to be a fatal injury to Barbaro. But, notes Flood, that coverage was justified because the breakdown came during the race to a heavily-hyped super horse and the injury didn't seem fatal — "the horse lived for almost a year," he said.

Otherwise, NBC's Derby coverage stuck to the usual formula, like its Olympic coverage: Storytelling to engage viewers with a sport they rarely otherwise watch.
•P.S. NBC's red-carpet prerace show, expanded to an hour this year, was on par with red-carpet shows outside sports. Actress Molly Sims confided to show host Billy Bush that she was wearing her "Grey Goose Vodka hat." After New York Giant Michael Strahan reminded Bush that he'd once "yelled" at him in a restaurant, Bush replied "it came from a position of love." Bush seemed to be sticking to that position Saturday, concluding "everybody looks fantastic!"
There's lots of filler in a two-minute event that gets nearly three hours of coverage. NBC hyped its The Office sitcom by having its actors talk about the Derby with an unfunny sketch revolving around the hilarious idea that cars can go faster than horses.
NBC analyst Bob Neumeier correctly predicted favorite Big Brown would win. That prompted NBC handicapper Mike Battaglia, citing confident Big Brown trainer Richard Dutrow Jr., to say Neumeier "drank the Rick Dutrow Kool-Aid" — with Neumeier adding "on the rocks." Has everybody forgotten the origin of that relatively young cliché?
But NBC also did a good job in waiting to report facts, rather about speculating, about Eight Belles. And, even in a world you might be able to watch literally anything online, it's nice to see restraint. Says Flood of the footage NBC didn't show: "It was true agony. You'd never do that to an audience."
•Ratings P.S. NBC's race coverage (5:45-6:45 ET p.m.) drew a 9.5 overnight rating, which translates to 9.5% of households in 56 urban TV markets. That's down 3% from last year. But last year's Derby got extra hype because England's queen showed up.
Spice rack:
TNT's NBA coverage, credited as being the first TV outlet to romantically link San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker and actress Eva Longoria (who eventually married), probed Miami Heat player Dwyane Wade on his relationship with TV talk show host Star Jones. Charles Barkley cut to the chase: "Are you the kind of friends that drink out of one cup with two straws?" he asked Wade in TNT's studio. Wade said he was "just friends" with that "unbelievable woman." … Long-shot boxer Steve Forbes, on HBO, explained his motivation before losing to marketing whiz Oscar De La Hoya: "I don't sleep in silk pajamas." … Tim McCarver, on Fox's Chicago Cubs-St. Louis Cardinals game Saturday, is touting a new book and asked on-air partner Joe Buck why he didn't show up for a book-signing event Friday afternoon in St. Louis. Buck's reply was direct: "And miss Tom Cruise re-inventing himself on Oprah?" Buck sounds grounded.
Out:
Fox Sports Net will no longer use Rodney Peete and Rob Dibble on its ironically-named Best Damn Sports Show Period. Instead, it will use guest hosts.

Sorry to say, But As Lame as PETA is, She is Soooo on the money with her story.

Sad.

"Peta opinion on Eight Belles and Horse Racing in general... "

Who gives a Rats ass what they think..........about anything.

2 words for PETER....F YOU

I will never eat horse meat again.

According to their statement released after the Derby catastrophe, PETA calls for the following changes in horse racing:
"1. Delay training and racing until after a horse's third birthday. Before reaching this age, the animals' legs are not fully developed, which increases the chances for injury.
2. Eliminate racing on dirt surfaces. Synthetic track surfaces - such as the surfaces used at Keeneland and all California race courses - are safer for horses and have led to dramatic decreases in breakdowns.
3. Limit the number of races per season. Even Triple Crown racers who have light schedules leading up the Derby break down under the strain. Horses who race on smaller tracks are often run so frequently that strains and breaks are inevitable.
4. Ban whipping. Injured horses who are mercilessly whipped by jockeys will keep going until their legs shatter completely
5. Immediately suspend the trainer and jockey who, through excessive force and neglect, allowed this tragic death to happen."



OK, I just have to dismiss a couple things out-of-hand here. This isn't the jockey or the trainer's fault, so #5 is right out for me. Also, I don't have ANY problem with jockeys carrying and using bats. Crops/bats/whips are ENCOURAGERS. They can get to the motor on a horse much better than any other device known to man, so I find this suggestion downright silly. And I have to come to the conclusion that the person that wrote this has NEVER tried to ride a horse past something it has decided is a horse-eater.
I also don't think that horses running on the smaller tracks, "...are run so frequently that strains and breaks are inevitable." Strains and breaks are inevitable for PEOPLE too, sorry, but no matter what you do horses will continue to strain and break their legs.
But as for number's 1 and 2 and the first sentence in 3, I don't think those are bad suggestions, especially the first one.
PETA has also published the statement, "Although Eight Belles' death, like Barbaro's before hers, made headlines, countless lesser-known horses suffer similar fate..."
You are about to witness a first. Something I never thought would ever come out of my mouth, or fingers: I guess I have to agree with PETA.
Tragic accidents can happen at anytime in life. But are the high-performance horse-sports really FAIR to the horses?
Are we asking too much from our equine partners?
Sure, thoroughbreds are bred to run, they LOVE to run, but should they be running before they are even physically mature?
Is trying to get to the top in eventing becoming tantamount to a "Do or Die" situation for horse and rider?
I can't answer these and other questions like them myself. ALL of us involved in the horse industry need to be active in this discussion and we have to have the horses' welfare as our primary concern.
I did not physically witness any of the tragic accidents of the three horses mentioned that have died this past week for sport (thank heavens for small favors), but I HAVE been very much affected by them on a personal level.
I entreat you all to join in a discussion. WE as the horse community need to be proactive in addressing the concerns of organizations and people that look at horse sports like PETA does or we will leave the final decisions OUT of horsemen's hands, and in the hands of people that don't really know and understand these magnificent animals like we do.
WE are the experts in what our horses can and can't handle. WE need to take responsibility for whatever areas in our respective disciplines are either cruel or unsafe to the horses' welfare and make the necessary changes.
Or someone else will.

http://horsecity.com/stories/050708/efe_derby_ferguson.shtml#

The average thoroughbred race horse lives a better life than probably 95% of dues-paying PETA members.

If we're going to get off on a rant here, it would be to see to it that the jockies finally get paid a fair share for their work and have their work conditions amended so they no longer are motivated to be bulimics.

barman said:

The average thoroughbred race horse lives a better life than probably 95% of dues-paying PETA members.

If we're going to get off on a rant here, it would be to see to it that the jockies finally get paid a fair share for their work and have their work conditions amended so they no longer are motivated to be bulimics.

Click to expand...

Well said. Also, there is some problems in horse racing, such as allowing horses to be medicated to mask pain on the day of the race. However, PETA just hurts their cause by trying to get publicity on an issue they know absolutley nothing about. Sadly...

The writer is spot on about point number one. Too much strain being put on the horses while there still developing, so of course you have a greater chance of breaking down then when your fully developed.

horse racing isnt dog fighting, but its something i have no interest in just because all they care about is making dough off the horses and then killing them when there through with them. these owners and trainers could care less about the horse if he doesn't bring in the money for them.

just google race horses euthanized. they euthanized 10 or so the other week when there was a huge mixup on the track. thinking about it more i can see some parallels between this and dogfighting. dogfighting, black millionaire business where dogs are forced to fight, horse racing white millionaire biz where horses are forced to race and eventually be killed, except i guess the death isnt as brutal. death is death though.

Being lower on the food chain than Human Beings isn't always the greatest spot.

barman said:

The average thoroughbred race horse lives a better life than probably 95% of dues-paying PETA members.

If we're going to get off on a rant here, it would be to see to it that the jockies finally get paid a fair share for their work and have their work conditions amended so they no longer are motivated to be bulimics.

Click to expand...

I am a Peta supporter and live the nice life. Not sure what you mean here. What I do know is that Peta is a lightening rod for the usual corporate pitchfork numbnuts who shout the FU's while stepping in a stinking pile of ignorance. Do you really think Peta, as a multimillion dollar per year advocacy group, is grinding publicity on something they "know absolutely nothing about" as pwn3dyo asserts? Probably not. The 'insider dodge' is the first haven for lawless industry pollutors and slaughterhouse profiteers who assure us that they are the professionals and 'you' know nothing about the industry. As outsiders we know that US racing industry allows horse race day medications and chemicals while the rest of the world does not. Stud fees, inflated by mideast oil money, now surpass race money in profit which pressures early year, younger race performance. Here is the analogy: it is more profitable to breed a cow who is faster to run up the slaughterhouse ramp to meet the stun gun and have its throat cut. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhlhSQ5z4V4

Am I the only one that finds it ironic, inconsistent and
hypocritical that the majority of PETA people are
pro abortion?

They sure are and then some.