Is this America's Dirty Little Secret?

Question

I just watched Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, which featured an investigation on the reality behind horse racing that most people don't want to think about. The investigation revealed the cruel reality that most race horses go to slaughter. If they aren't winning they aren't making their owners any money, so they get sold for slaughter. Since the US has outlawed horse slaughter here, the horses are crammed together and sent overseas, Canada or South America, where slaughter is even more inhumane than in the US.

As all registered thoroughbreds have an identifying tatoo on their lip, one horse rescued from slaughter, named "Little Cliff," had made his owner $200K in purses before he was sold to "the meat man." A former employee of Montineer race track called the reality behind horse racing "America's dirty little secret."

Why would anyone with a conscience support such a cruel "sport?" This can be applied to all animals unnecessarily forced to entertain humans.

Answer 1

1986 Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand was sent to slaughter in Japan. This created the "Ferdinand fee" which is supposed to prevent this from happening.

Answer 2

Racehorses aren't the only horses going to slaughter.  Some breeders in other disciplines send horses off to auction for being born the wrong color, or not being suited for what they were bred to do, and so forth.  I've seen broodmares who spent 20 years delivering healthy foals sent to slaughter because they can no longer get pregnant.

There are crappy people all over the world, and when money is involved, the crappy people get crappier.  Did you know there is a disease in the stock horse industry that could be completely stopped if people quit thinking with their wallets and avoided breeding carriers?  Instead, the unscrupulous breeders continue breeding affected horses, and the disease continues today.

Answer 3

Querious should get the 10 points for best answer.  

What the questioner forgot to mention is that Robert LaPenta & Nick Zito were two of the people that made contributions to rescue Little Cliff.  LaPenta is a racehorse owner (he owns War Pass for one) and Zito is a racehorse trainer.  Zito had a horse in this years Preakness and will have another in the Belmont.  Where were the PETA zealots when the horse needed rescuing?  

http://www.pedigreequery.com/little+clif...

Answer 4

SEE YOU AT THE TRACK.....

Answer 5

You actually believe this nonesense? Bryant Gumbel is about as reliable as a screen door on a submarine. He hasn't performed any legitimate research since the 80s. Everyone knows that.

Do yourself a favor...don't buy it.

Answer 6

the first link is a reason that sends more horses to slaughter.. most of them foals

http://www.socyberty.com/Activism/Preven...

http://www.sportales.com/Equestrian/Is-H...

the second is about why horses in NORTH AMERICA break down WAY MORE than in England..

however make no mistake.. there are more horses who are low value, than high.. I posted the second link back when the 8 Bells Tradgedy occured and most people flipped out.. because they insist "ALL" race horses are valueable.. I can tell you - they are not.. many are bought and sold for far less than those you see on TV...  

yes many go to slaugher.. (I live in Canada) and I beleive there are still 2 slaughter houses in USA... some are sold to chuck wagon racers... a few to hunter/jumper riders... some for breeding

please read the links they are rather interesting

Answer 7

that is not true about many horses......

the owners dont just call up the slaughter house and say "hey, i have a horse that isnt winning me any money.  Will you come take him away???"

many owners to put the horses up for auction where they have no control over who buys the horse.  MOst of the horses now go to rescues or owners that care about them, and only a handful go to slaughter.....

It is not a cruel sport

sometimes it just has cruel people who have the horses.

and out of curiosity was the former employee of Montineer race track fired or did he quit?  If he got fired he might have said that out of anger.

Answer 8

Are you going to spend YOUR OWN MONEY on feeding all 200.00 thousand horse a yr so in ten  yrs it will be almost million's to feed all the horses that did NOT GO TO DOG FOOD AND PEOPLE FOOD !!!

SHUT UP YOU IDIOT OR WILL PETA DO DO IT

MAYBE EVERY ONE THAT CAN NOT LONGER CARE FEED ETC JUST DROP THEIR HORSES AT PETA,'S OFFICE

you might want to shut up before some one makes you

Answer 9

What about the grey hounds that race

or old show horses ?

I have seen many god ROPE horse and many many barrel horse's go for meat

And they go to Japan and Belgium  j**s pay's  good money for horse meat

Now if people STOP breeding so many bad horse's and the slaughter houses where more humane I think That anyone thats against it

you Buy them and pay the feed



there are many throw aways

I do NOT LIKE IT

But it needs to be done ?

Now people are hiding them from people to see them STARVE

AND or they will start turning out in the mountains

Like it has been done already .

So whats better,,,, to let them starve or die and be rid of their misery ????

Answer 10

Slaughtering of horses is a service  if Not where are all the 200.00 thousand horses going to live and whos going to SAVE THAT MANY

I don't believe in doing it to horses that was once CHAMPIONS BUT

But it shows that ,,that many are UNWANTED SO NOW they will STARVE or be turned out some where

People have to STOP breeding **** to ****

it's going the wrong way for the horses now , we need the slaughter houses

sorry if you cant or don't like it but that many horses in a yr ?? come on now thinks about where are they now

have you seen the price of feed

Answer 11

could be true,

how could they do that?

Answer 12

horses run and race themselves in the wild

why shouldent they beable to have some fun

its better than them just sitting in the paddock all day with no one going near them

Answer 13

Maybe you should give a little thought to what the horse population would likely become if it was not for sporting horse competition generating a public interest in owning and breeding horses for equestrian sport and recreation. With little use for the horse in the 20th Century except to pull carriages for Quakers and work the fields of the few Quaker settlements in America, I would credit equestrian sports for preventing the horse from diminishing to a point of near extinction. Canada's national horse, the Canadian Horse breed, diminished to the point of near extinction in the 20th Century and by the late 1970s there was little more than 400 Canadian Horses in the province of Quebec and the breed was virtually extinct outside the province of Quebec because mechanization of the 20th Century provided humans with machinery to replace the horse. But thanks to the growing popularity of equestrian sports and dedicated breeders the population of the Canadian Horse breed has begun to thrive and recover throughout Canada. With little use for working horses in the cities and on farms in the 20th and now the 21st Century, sporting horse competition and recreation is pretty much all that can save the horse from extinction. During my childhood in the 1950s and 1960s there was at least 4 horse breeding farms within a few miles in various directions of the tiny town where I grew up. One was my grandfather who bred Morgans and the other farms bred Missouri Fox Trotters, Quarter Horses and Arabians. And from my earliest childhood memories until my early teens the parade for our Homecoming Picnic had dozens of horses in it decked out in their showiest western saddles and tack with riders in their finest western costumes, and I can remember when farmers who bred draft horses brought their most powerful draft teams to the Homecoming Picnic to compete in weighted sled pulls. And even the volunteer fire department got in on the parade show with a horse team drawn steamer fire engine which the fire department had preserved from a long past era. All those horse breeders are gone now and so are the Homecoming Picnic horses. Homecoming is not what it was when I grew up, not even having pony rides for children anymore. But thanks to the growing interest in recreational and sport riding generated by equestrian sporting competitions, horses are at little risk of diminishing to the point of extinction and all the wonderful breeds, including the Canadian Horse, will survive for the many generations yet to enjoy the pleasure of their magnificence.

Whew! Thank goodness for sporting horse competition.

Answer 14

You almost had me until the last sentence.

You know, there was a dog "shamed" on Cute Overload today. He had his picture taken next to a sign that said, "I eat my own p**p." I suppose you're one of the people who thinks this was cruel?

Second, is it "America's dirty little secret?"

No.

Is it dirty? Yes. Is it little? Probably. Is it a secret? Perhaps, but you've blown that now, by posting on the internet, haven't you?

But is it America's dirty little secret? I don't think so, I think we have much bigger and much dirtier and much more secret secrets than that. And we have secrets which actually have something to do with our culture or which the people are arguably complicit in.

No, what we have here, is a dirty little secret of a few inhumane fat-cats.

And one which may well reflect worse on countries other than America, if it is true, as you say, that the horses are shipped away from here to where slaughtering practices are even more inhumane.

We could have some common cause if that was all  you were asking for, humane treatment of animals. Its a venerable position, a noble sentiment. And if you overlook it, or consider it "species-ist" then you do so to the detriment of your cause.