Horseracing Kills About as Many in One Day as the 4 Major U.S. Sports Have in Their Collective 387 Years
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Patrick Battuello, Horseracing Wrongs
June 2018

Horseracing-as-sport is an obscenity of the highest order. There are, of course, many reasons why, but perhaps the three most obvious are these: First, the athletes in question are utterly unaware of their status as such – worse, they are in fact pieces of chattel, animal slaves. Second, participation in said sport is compelled by whip-wielding human beings. Third, and most telling of all, death on the field of play.

That horseracing kills horses is settled fact. But what most of the public doesn’t know is the magnitude of that killing, nor in how it relates to other accepted sports. We estimate that roughly 1,000 racehorses are killed on “game day” (just racing, not including training) each year. In comparison, here are the game-related death totals for the four major U.S. professional sports leagues over their entire histories:

  • Major League Baseball, founded 1903, 116 seasons – one death (Ray Chapman)
  • National Hockey League, founded 1917-18, 101 seasons – one death (Bill Masterton)
  • National Football League, founded 1920, 98 seasons – one death (Chuck Hughes)
  • National Basketball Association, founded 1946-47, 72 seasons – zero deaths

In other words, horseracing kills about as many in one day as the other four have in their collective 387 years.

A sport? America, you’ve been hoodwinked.

Return to Animal Rights Articles