"Nothing is more beautiful than watching a thoroughbred run; noble, heroic, courageous, full of heart and spirit. But there is nothing noble or heroic about horseracing any longer. It has been destroyed by greed and cruelty."
Two more recent letters!
Today is the day. It’s been coming for a few years now and is a very
difficult one for me. I have had horses since I was five and grew up
at the tracks in Ohio. We currently have two horses. I have friends
in the industry, including where I live in PA. I can no longer
support the “sport” of horse racing. I will from now on, be an
advocate for the horses, instead of the people who are abusing their
horses. I can no longer say these people care about their horses
when they continue to drug and kill them. I am already sharing the
petition for PA with all of my friends. I hope I can
make a difference. Thank you for your help in coming to this
decision.
– Kimberly Austin-Routhier
******
Dear Mr. Battuello:
I never in my life thought I would be writing you a letter like
this. I have loved horses and been a horseracing fan all my life. I
am now 63. When I was a little girl, I grew up reading C.W.
Anderson’s horse stories. When I was 10, my family moved here from
Milwaukee, and I was so thrilled because I loved the Kentucky Derby
and I now lived in the town where Churchill Downs was located.
Nothing is more beautiful than watching a thoroughbred run; noble,
heroic, courageous, full of heart and spirit. But there is nothing
noble or heroic about horseracing any longer. It has been destroyed
by greed and cruelty.
For a time I naively thought that if we could get the “bad” people
out of racing, then things would be better. But now I realize there
is nothing but bad people involved in racing from the top to the
bottom. The millionaires that churn out more horses than America
could ever support and refuse to accept the slightest limit on their
breeding programs. The veterinarians who have abdicated their
responsibility to care for the animals in good faith and who drug
helpless beasts in the eternal quest to win regardless of the harm
to life and health. The trainers who care nothing for their charges,
only their pocketbooks and reputations. The owners who drag ill-used
and sick animals to race at racinos so they can make another hundred
dollars or so.
I can’t take the naked greed and the naked cruelty anymore. No one,
except for your group, has any true desire to reform things. Nothing
is being done to protect horses from being abused until they die.
All the measures proposed so far – a central horseracing authority,
etc. – is just a sop to the people who know that horseracing is
cruel. The death toll has become too much to bear. Everyday cruelty
is the new normal.
I believe the only solution is to end horseracing for good. We ended
greyhound racing because people thought it was cruel to dogs (and it
was). Are horses any less? Perhaps because your everyday person has
less exposure to horses than dogs is part of the gap. Horses are
classed as livestock to most people, but just because they are does
not give us permission to use them cruelly. Nor does it give us
permission to torture animals until they die and kill them cruelly
in slaughterhouses.
After all these years of loving thoroughbreds, I can no longer
support racing. This has been a long time coming, but horseracing
has changed so much that it is unrecognizable. If you’re not part of
the solution, you’re part of the problem. I refuse to be part of the
problem anymore. Your website has gone a long way towards changing
my mind and my attitude. No more casual cruelty, no more casual
death. I can’t take it anymore.
– (name withheld per wishes), Kentucky