Why do wonderful racehorses like "Ferdinand" and "Exceller" end up in the slaughterhouse?

Question

I knew about Ferdinand but just learned about Exceller today after reading another question on here.It makes me sick!!

Answer 1

i saw both of them run, and it is the darkest part of my

racing memories, i have 34 years of watching great

horses run, and before exceller beat those 2 triple crown

winners, we had a horse on the west coast named" VIGORS"

and he would come from dead last and run past the entire

field, but exceller was the only 1 who could run by Vigors....

Answer 2

Hello,

Some of these horses live a long life with a family who cares for them or are studs/brood mares.

Otherwise horse racing is like most everything else these days, we use the critter make all the money we can out of them then put them down, sad really since horses can live past 30 years.

Once a horse is "ruined" mot people will not bother with them but will run out and buy a youngster and do it all over again.

Answer 3

Unfortunately this does happen, but ask yourself this - would you rather they had suffered a slow painful death of starvation and neglect or that they were killed quickly and put out of there misery?

It is a fact of life that some horses will be destroyed when their useful life is over, not everyone can afford to keep a horse as a pet in a field.  But I agree that a slaughterhouse is not the way to deal with them.

Owners need to take more responsibility when selling their horses and perhaps write a clause into the contract saying that they have first refusal on buying them back should they come up for sale.

Don't just blame people overseas, I think you'll find that in the very recent past it used to happen a lot in America too.

I'd just like to reiterate that it is perfectly possible to put a clause into a contract of sale.  Coolmore have just done this with the stallion FASLIYEV who has been sold to Japan.  They have added a clause that simply says if the Japanese no longer want him they must offer him back to Coolmore before doing anything with him.

Answer 4

This is a very upsetting situation, money and greed pay a big  part in these poor horse death, if the owners didn't want them anymore give them to someone who will care, some people especially other countries really do not get a emotional attachment to them, which is there loss,they are such loving wonderful creatures.  I currently have a ex-racehorse that was not wanted any longer cause he was no longer making any money but costing money,  Well he is costing me plenty of money to feed, vets, shoes, hay and straw and I am not a rich person I live on a disability check from a work related injury but he is worth every penny I spend to see him happy and healthy,  I see him every day and when I drive up to the barn he is so happy to see me, loves his peppermints.

Look what some people do to t he eldery they put them in a nursing home and forget about them,it sicken me.

I can understand maybe a horse going to slaughter that is all crippled and  can't function at all, it is still a very sad death.

Maye these owners should take there responiability a little more serious and when it  going to cost a few $$$ take the high road, someting to think about.

Answer 5

Because we're too trusting when we send our horses to stud in other countries.  We know that they're wonderful horses and we'd treat them properly...  no champion racehorse would end up in slaughter in the states... but the horses get overseas and they start having breeding problems and our champion doesn't mean as much to them so they treat them like any other horse and send it away to slaughter.  Thank god for the Ferdinand fund...  too bad it took losing one of the greats before we created it.  Ya know, when we started looking for Ferdinand the Japanese wouldn't give us a straight answer about where he was... clearly they knew they did something wrong...  one would think that if they knew they would have notified us and offered him back to us.  But I guess I just think more rationally than they did.  It's really sad though...  I hate that a Kentucky Derby winner ended up on someone's dinner plate.  :o(

Answer 6

When OUR race horses are sent ( SOLD) to stud farms over in Europe and Japan, now Korea also we lose control of what happens to them after their stud career is over. This is the part of racing I HATE, sometimes it just tears my heart out to read who is being sold to overseas interests ( because I have seen first hand what can and often does happen). Horsemeat is considered a delicacy in some countries ( YUCK...!)

EXCEPT for people like Michael Blowen of "Old Friends" we wouldn't get many of them back. He has been negotiating to get  A LOT of old champs back here. This guy is my hero... honestly! He has a 52 acre spread in Kentucky where he takes in horses, and he's the ONLY organization that will take in Stallions. He has the support of so many of racing's finest people, Chris McCarron lives close by. I donate time and money to this guy's foundation because I BELIEVE what he does has earned him a special place in heaven!

  Here is an article that was written recently on Boston.com, it's long but it's GREAT and tells all about what he is doing and why. Get out your kleenex cause in the end it will bring tears to your eyes... but it makes me truly happy that there are still people like this in the world!

http://www.boston.com/sports/other_sport...

Answer 7

what are they going to do with them otherwise? have a giant preserved-horse museum somewhere?

Answer 8

Its because thoughs idiots think they cant run anymore races so they dont want them!

Answer 9

When Exceller's owner went bankrupt, the horse was moved to a small farm where he remained for a year before owner Göte Östlund ordered him killed. He was taken to a slaughterhouse and killed for meat.

Exceller was elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1999. Although their website does, the plaque in the museum makes no mention of the manner of his death, only that he died in 1997. His fate, essentially unheard of for an American stallion of his racing class, generated debate over the proper treatment of race horses after their careers on the track were over.

Wikipedia

According to both the woman who tended to him-and whose duty it became to kill him-and to the director of the Scandinavian Racing Bureau, he wasn't destroyed because he was ill or injured, but because he had become a liability to his bankrupt owner, Gote Ostlund, who didn't care to spend diminishing resources on a horse from whom he couldn't profit.

http://www.fund4horses.org/info.php?id=2...

ps. A very sad ending for a great racehorse....