PETA Wants Eight Belles' Jockey Suspended After Filly's Death?

Question

Why isn't PETA after Wildlife Hunters of America?

These horses are animals. Gosh, I wish a horse could talk and tell the Jockey - Hey Man, I don't feel good today - can we opt out this race?

The organizations like PETA have nothing to do.

PETA spokes person: Kathy Guillermo "Guillermo said if Saez is found at fault, the group wants the second- place prize of $400,000 won by Eight Belles to be revoked."

What do you think? any mistreating of animals should be banned if one is banned right? dog fights? rooster fights? even to own a pet in your home should be banned. How do you know if your dog is happy or sad? Do they talk to their owners?

Answer 1

Peta is garbage.I am gonna have surf and turf on them tonight !

Answer 2

PETA is stupid because what about the thousands of wild horses dying when they trip on holes in fields that those hippies don't see in rural areas?  They lie in agony and nobody is around to comfort them like how it unfolded at the Kentucky Derby.  

PETA is made up of mostly hippy liberal leftist extremists that rotate between PETA, Code Pink, ActUp and other domestic terrorist groups that only can hold "die ins" and "tree sitting" because they are uneducated and illiterate.  Ask one member of PETA during a protest and they will ignore you, point at their picket sign or blurt out garbage that does not have to do with any of their so-called animal "causes".

It's true that animals cannot talk, but also true that horseracing has been around for centuries before any of us were born and know for a fact that horses love running and receive better care at the racetracks than in the wild.

Answer 3

Titof- Eight Belles' jockey has been exonerated and cleared of all blame for the filly's death by the STEWARDS at Churchill Downs. These people work for the State Racing Commission, and are NOT directly involved in active racing due to the potential conflict of interest. The stewards reviewed the films this morning, and Saez was cleared of all blame shortly afterwards. Incidentally, it should be noted that he has been very upset and scared by PETA'S tactics- so much so, in fact ,that the filly's trainer had to reassure him and explain to him what the group was up to.

Your last paragraph makes no sense, unless you yourself are a PETA member. Banning all interaction with animals by people for any purpose whatsoever is PETA'S main goal in life- that's what the group was founded to do. In their ideal world, humans would never be permitted NEAR ANY animal, for ANY reason, and we would ALL be forced into becoming vegetarians and to depend on plants for a living. Think about what that would mean, and what kind of sterile, joyless existance humanity would be forced into if that were the case. We need our animal friends- they are what make life on this planet bearable and liveable for most of us. We can't survive as a race without them.

Answer 4

PETA is pretty pathetic. Pointing fingers after Eight Belle's death. They are just looking for someone to blame and they have taken it way to far.

and they are against having domestic pets? how stupid is that.

Answer 5

peta is crazy dont listen to anything they say. if peta wants horse racing to stop who will

Answer 6

They are using this to promote their own agenda. It's ludicrous. The jockey was not at fault and had nothing to do with it. he did everything to help her once he realized she was hurt. Nothing will come of it, except publicity for PETA and a black eye for racing in the media.

Answer 7

I don't like PETA. I love animals, but they are mostly hypocritical fanatics. (PETA, not animals.)

Eight Belles' owner had no choice, they had to euthanize her. It's standard protocol. She couldn't bear weight at ALL.

Also, it's no fault of her owner that she broke her ankles.

Answer 8

just a little off topic here, but if there wasn't hunting then the animal population would be out of control, and hunting in the u.s is only during a certain time period, i know that if hunting was illegal, here in pennsylvannia the deer population would be huge. anyway back on topic. dogfighting is illegal, thats why peta protested to Michael Vick. I think PETA doesn't understand horse racing or the food chain (well both but the food chain representing the hunters). PETA needs to stop pointing fingers because it was no one's fault the horse just did something and he went down. the real problem here is peta itself because they want to outlaw killing animals, so they'd rather see a animal going through all that pain and suffering when putting it to sleep would probably be better for the animal.

Answer 9

PETA is stupid!

Answer 10

It was in no way Gabriel's fault. He was actually just galloping her out and pulling her up. He in no way wanted to hurt her. The trainers,jockeys,grooms,hot walkers,exercise riders, and most owners all love horses.

Answer 11

PETA is a group of idiots focusing on completely the wrong issues.

Belles' jockey did nothing wrong (or, if you are someone who hates horse racing and thinks it's all wrong, he didn't do anything anyone else didn't do).  I seriously doubt he knew anything was wrong - and when horses are bred to run like that, it's really hard to stop them running anyway.

Answer 12

It kind of makes me sick to think about the top tier of PETA watching the horse race. From what I know of them, I'll bet they were GLAD of poor Eight Belles' fate.

"Alright, guys, here's our chance to get another 15 minutes! Call someone up and make threats, even though we don't really know WHAT happened!"

Someone ought to really expose PETA and some of THEIR sick practices. That poor jockey was less at fault for what happened to her than PETA was when they had employees euthanize perfectly healthy, adoptable cats and dogs. They believe pets would rather be DEAD than living with humans, and are making it so. Visit petakillsanimals.com

I'm sure the guy is going through enough guilt and grief without PETA breathing down his neck.

Answer 13

Eight Belles' Jockey did NOTHING WRONG! I watched the race a few times and it's clear the filly was fine until after she passed the finish line.  He used the whip properly during the race (for those who don't realize this, hitting a horse with a crop (it's not a whip) isn't very painful.  (I used to be reluctant to use the crop so my instructor made me hit myself with it as hard as I could - it's not a terrribly painful feeling - just a wake up call).

I am sure Saez is extremely devastated by the incident (and by the fact that people are calling him a horse killer).  Even Larry Jones, Eight Belles' trainer has stated emphatically that Saez did everything correctly.  And you should note that Larry Jones is the same trainer who publicly criticized both Mario Pino and Garrett Gomez' for their respective rides of Hard Spun in the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.  If he thought Saez had made a mistake, we'd hear him loud and clear.

Answer 14

P.E.T.A. is a group of extremists.  I cant stand them, i believe in fair treatment of animals, but only to a certain extent.  They value animals as much as people or more so in some cases.

Answer 15

The horse racing industry causes thousands of horses to be born only to be slaughtered or abandoned to an existence of neglect, starvation, and suffering. There are three reasons for

this:

1. Very large numbers must be produced annually to generate a few fast ones to be selected to compete. Of the many thousands bred to race, very few make the grade. The rest must be disposed of.

2. During training or racing, injuries are common. Injured horses are also euthanized or sold from one owner to another into increasingly worse conditions.

3. When race horses have finished their career - usually at a very early age, before they are fully mature - they, too, must be disposed of. Their numbers exceed by far the number of humane retirement facilities.

Ok now I am a hunter and a fair pledged anti PETA person. I have never seen eye to eye with them and think their tactics are dirty. However, I also own a horse of my own and think horse racing is a joke. We get all those old white rich folk who parade around feeling high and mighty when they win something. Half the people do not even understand the beauty of these creatures and only care about their precious gambling money. I understand that thoroughbreds love to run and all that argument but I also know that these horse riders, owners and breeders run the horses at too early of an age. Most of these younger horses are not fully developed and often injure themselves from lack of bone definition and in-experiance. All this for the enjoyment of people who don't understand that these horses are not capable of this type of strain at this early age. I also understand that very few do perish but cmon does it really matter. Run the horses when there able to and stop betting on them for our enjoyment. God created vast fields for horses to run in not some track filled with greedy betters and old white grandmas who have nothing better to do with their time.

Answer 16

Peta should be banned. Get rid of the useless b******s.

Answer 17

Actually, PETA is opposed to hunting.

You do have a point that, if we are concerned about animal abuse, we should be concerned about all forms of animal abuse. It is logically and morally arbitrary to get upset over dog abuse, but not care about the abuse of pigs.

I am afraid your last paragraph does not make sense. You imply that if one form of animal abuse should be banned, they all should, which seems reasonable enough. Dog fights and rooster fights are banned, and most people agree that those bans are good. So then, by your logic, shouldn't we ban things like horse racing too?

I also do not see how you make the assumption that owning a pet is mistreatment comparable to dog fighting.

Most pet owners can tell if their dog is upset or happy. Going beyond that, it is usually very easy to tell when an animal is in pain. The dog being beaten doesn't need to be able to speak english for us to understand he is in pain. By making the ability to speak the criteria for knowing when another being is in pain, you are ignoring reality.

I always have to wonder at people who agree that all forms of animal abuse should be treated equally, then take the abuse of animals elsewhere as a justification to, say, fight dogs. The reasonable and humane conclusion would be to rethink current accepted abuses of animals.

Katerbear B: No offense, but that is the dumbest thing I ever heard. If PETA was against having pets, why would they have a website about how to take care of pets? http://www.helpinganimals.com/ I think there should be a serious discussion about horse racing and about whether PETA's call is justified, but please at least think before posting an answer.

Rooshoot: Yes, we can't have too much fair treatment, can we? LOL, at least the person who asked this question understood enough logic to grasp that if you treat some fairly, it is inconsistent to not treat all fairly.

Answer 18

I will go so far to say that peta is one of the worst influences on our society, from what i read on their blog about the issue, the almost remind me of terrorists. For peta, a helpful message, stop looking for a scapegoat all the time, take faults like you should no one (including your organization) is remotely close to perfect.

Answer 19

Before ANY judgement can be rendered, the term MISTREATMENT must first be DEFINED in order to put the blame where it belongs.  Everyone seems to be ready to but the blame on everyone else.  

The Jockey can't be held responsible for a genetic defect caused by breeding & placing the animal in a stressful track atmosphere before their bones are solidified.  If Eight Belles legs had snapped before the race ended, the Jockey most likely would have died too.  

Horses need STRICKER medical regulations with X-Rays & a panel of vets to pass judgement over the health of an animal, rather than simply relying on the word on ONE Vet.  

The State Board needs to start giving written tests & giving MANDATORY workshops in Equine Maintenence & Care to ALL TRACK PERSONEL prior to receiving their yearly license to work on the track.  In other words, this needs to be a GROUP EFFORT on the part of the racing industry to EDUCATE THE CAREGIVERS OF THE HORSES.

PETA seems to have lost sight of the issues, in my opinion.