Is horse racing ethical?

Question

I think all forms of animal entertainment are wrong and barbaric but sometimes I wonder because the people who keep the horses seem to treat them better than humans that is until they break their leg running while getting whipped. For the horse owners out there and people who don't but have an opinion I'd like to hear it possibly with some facts too.

and also which do you think is more hurtful to society, horse racing or nascar? (or any racing that burns fuel into the air for no reason; i know its negligable but i think of it kind of like christmas lights and electricity, it must add up)

Answer 1

The question of ethics is too big a question for this forum, but I will give you some facts, in 2005 there were 34,070 horses foaled in the U.S. and Canada, in 2007 11, 695 2 yr. olds started that year, now that leaves  some 22,375 horses unaccounted for. So one has to ask oneself, where did they go? that is a large amount unaccounted for, too large for me.

I am leaving you with a link to a speech that was at the jockey club round table meeting, this past year, in which they are trying to figure out how to fix this problem of the #'s not jibing(mostly the losses in revenue, but also the losses in horse flesh) and the pressures that the public(the part of the public that feels ethically responsible to act) are putting on them, I think it is a little late, but it is progress, and I hope they make the right decisions for the horse and horse racing in general.

Because in that jockey club forum held in Saratoga Springs,N.Y. is where the rules that govern American horse racing are foaled and/or euthinised.

Also, there is a wealth of information in this link on horse racing and breeding, check it out and decide for yourself.

the general betting public or the lack of it is what controls the industry of horse racing.

NASCAR.... what is that?someone(a cowboy) sounded like he knew a lot about nascar, and if what he is saying is true that those cars get better gas mileage than a hybred, well all I can say is that the car and oil companies have some serious questions to answer, like why haven't we applied this tech. to our everyday cars for the past 10 years. but we all know we've been getting our tailpipes stuffed by them, I say let's go back to RIDING HORSES, and I'll take a nice thoroughbred or maybe Qu. horse Tb. mix.

NEXT DAY; it is very true what fetlocks said, and when I trained and owned race horses, I felt the same about the use of the whip, and fired many a good jock for not folowing my instructions about not needing to whip my horses unless it was completely justified in a situation in a race. And also my horses safety and soundness were always paramount, they were not just my only source of income, I truly respected them, they are amazing athletes, and beautiful to see.

Unfortunately, though for many horses, there are a lot of bad horse trainers in all levels of horse racing, I used to beat them all the time, just like in any business, skills vary greatly and also to a lot of trainers and owners(very successful ones mind you)  their mentality is buy 25 babies or 100 babies train them all like their GOOD HORSES and the ones that can handle the punishment go on to be nice horses, and the rest either break down or filter down through the claiming ranks and end up at the cheaper tracks. gotta go.

http://www.jockeyclub.com/roundtable_07....

Answer 2

Yes, I think it is cruel.  But to each..there own!

Answer 3

I think it is ethical due to the fact most sports have some perceived unethical stigma attached to them, also we could just be breeding them for eating, like some countries.

Answer 4

Racehorses are kept in the best of possible conditions, and horses are only destroyed when there is no hope of saving them.

Look at the effort and money that was put into trying to save BARBARO and he still died.

You need to understand a horse's phyical make-up and psychology in order to understand why their bones cannot be repaired in the same way as a human's.

You are perfectly entitled to have your opinion, but you need to make sure you see both sides of the arguement before forming the opinion.

Answer 5

from your first sentence i can already see that you have already made up your mind..as for horses. any athlete can break a leg, human or animal and more horses break legs running through pastures by themselves or playing with other horses than all horse racing put together and if the injury can be fixed most will give up their first born to repair the horse just to spend the rest of its life in a pasture..as for racing and nascar,the vehicles engines are designed for optimal fuel efficiency and burn synthetic blend racing fuel..in otherwords at racing speed it puts out less pollutants than a Honda hybrid..as for society,,the hurt full thing is 90 percent of the people have lost or never had the basic education on livestock and animal husbandry so they are led around like lemmings from so called animal rights groups that are supporting domestic terrorism and euthanizing more animals than they take in...

by the way racing fuel costs from 8$ to 15$ a gallon and no racetracjak they dont get better fuel milage they put out less pollutants than a hybrid

Answer 6

Interesting question.

Think you need to separate horse racing away from "animal entertainment"  - They can have fragile legs but the trainer ought to know what will suit the horse and how the horse will cope with the conditions (death of George Washington last year is a good example of everything going wrong despite all the planning).

As an owner - horses are loved and adored and usualy more expensive to keep than a child at one of the top boarding schools. Any excesive use of whip by a jock on one of mine (horses, not children) would result in a serious telling off.

NASCAR. vs Racing ............no idea

Answer 7

I train horses and have seen people taking care of the horses sick running fever and near death bearing the elements but let a horse cough and you are calling the vet giving them time off and giving them the meds that are needed. Yes they are treated better than 99% of the human race

Answer 8

of course its ethical.........i make quite a healthy living betting and laying horses to lose as well but im in the uk and only ever bet on uk racing

Answer 9

I think it is barbaric also.