Suffolk Downs Says No More Horse Slaughtering
Because it’s taken this long for some people to figure out that the indiscriminate slaughter of horses is bad; Suffolk Downs has come out with a policy that will henceforth ban any trainer who sells any horse for slaughter from ever taking part in an event at their track. From ESPN:
It’s no secret that hundreds, if not thousands, of horses over the years have gone straight from small tracks like Suffolk Downs and Mountaineer Park to the slaughterhouse, where they meet a grisly death. The sport has always looked the other way, hoping that this dirty little secret would largely be ignored.
What Suffolk Downs has done is the type of decisive action that racing has to have to cure its long list of woes. Every track in the country should immediately follow Suffolk’s lead.
Um. Yeah, they should. I’ll go farther than that, any trainer that sells a horse to a slaughterhouse should be subject to the same type of vilification that Mike Vick has gone through. It shows the same disregard for animal life, it shows the same kind of “use it and then kill it” mentality that is prevalent in the way that some of these people use animals to line their pockets and discard them. From the Humane Society:
How many horses are slaughtered each year?
Prior to the closure of all three foreign-owned plans in the U.S., over 100,000 horses were being slaughtered in the United States and processed for human consumption. Now, tens of thousands of live horses are transported across the border to Mexico and Canada for slaughter. After these horses are killed, their flesh is shipped to Europe and Asia for human consumption. Their owners are often unaware of the pain, fear, and suffering their horses endure before being slaughtered.
Now, understand, I’m not blaming horse racing for horse slaughter. The majority of owners and trainers in horse racing truly love their animals and would not have anything happen this terrible happen to them. But, as in everything there are a few idiots in every crowd; people that are more interested in hustling a dollar, than in respecting the dignity of others, whether human or animal, and it’s ridiculous to me that all tracks that allow horse racing do not have a policy like the one that Suffolk Downs is putting into force.
Get more information about the Human Society’s efforts to end horse slaughter permanently here.
