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Is horse racing corrupt? The assumption, at least in the eyes of the public, certainly seems to be yes. Cobra venom has been used to deaden pain so that injured horses can race, dermorphin has been used to make horses more hyper, and some performance-enhancing drugs that have also been used to increase growth in cattle.
According to Charles A. Gardiner III, the executive director of the Louisiana Racing Commission, the sport is in trouble. “We’re under attack and losing our fan base. Fans believe that the sport is dirty, that there is cheating. And here we have an obvious attempt to cheat.”
Some of the problem is that when your athletes can’t communicate it’s hard to tell when they’re being abused. And pain-killers in particular are incredibly dangerous to horses. If horses can’t feel their injuries they’re likely to run just as hard as they would normally, despite the fact that they’re likely to permanently injure themselves.
Horse owner Earle I. Mack understands this better than most. In 2010, he retired one of his horses, Star Plus, due to an ankle injury and found him a good home on a farm in Florida. But he sold the horse last summer under an agreement that he would never be raced again.
Despite that agreement, however, the new owners put Star Plus back on the track. Mack tried to put a stop to it, writing a letter that laid out how an injured horse is not only dangerous to itself, but to everyone else on the track as well.
Luckily for Star Plus, Mack was able to buy him back and retire him in Kentucky. But he brought up an excellent point in the New York Times about how why we should treat horses well in their golden days.
“These horses have fought so hard for us and given us so many great thrills and happiness,” Earle I. Mack said. “Don’t they deserve to be cared for? Don’t they deserve better than what we’re giving them?”
It’s one reason, at least, that we should take a closer look at horse racing and how these creatures are being treated.