IDA Calls for Federal Investigation of Horse Racing after Death of Barbaro

Organization Says Horses Raced to the Grave

San Rafael, Calif.—In the wake of the death of Barbaro, the Kentucky Derby winning horse who took a bad step breaking his leg during last year’s Preakness Stakes, international animal protection organization In Defense of Animals (IDA) is calling for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate horse racing practices and to a ban what the organization claims are inhumane conditions that cause the animals to suffer life-threatening injuries. After sustaining his injury, Barbaro underwent months of major surgery, including the implantation of nearly two dozen screws into his bones to stabilize them. Barbaro’s “owners” euthanized the horse Monday after deciding he had been through too much.

Barbaro’s incident was just one in a series of high profile horse injuries and deaths in recent months. Seven horses died during the first seven days of the Del Mar (California) Thoroughbred Club’s track season last July. Four horses died at Bay Meadows in San Mateo, Calif. in December 2006.

According to IDA, thoroughbreds used for racing commonly suffer from a host of dangerous afflictions. Because thoroughbreds have been selectively bred over the course of many centuries for a single and very specific purpose – to run as fast as possible – their bodies are fragile and easily damaged by even the slightest misstep. One study estimates that about 800 horses die every year in North America as a result of racing injuries. Broken leg bones are a common occurrence in horseracing and drugs that mask pain only increase the chances of serious injury because a horse may keep running on a limb that has already been damaged, which can cause the leg bone to break through the skin. Such open wounds can get easily infected and become difficult to heal.

Most thoroughbreds injured during races are not so fortunate as Barbaro. Because most racehorse “owners” see these animals purely as economic investments, they choose to simply have injured thoroughbreds put down to spare themselves the expense of veterinary services. The least sympathetic investors recover some of their losses by selling injured horses to slaughterhouses. According to the National Horse Protection Coalition (NHPC), as many as 100,000 horses are slaughtered each year in the U.S. and exported for human consumption to European countries. The NHPC estimates that 16% of these are thoroughbred racehorses. Their flesh is exported to foreign countries overseas for human consumption or turned into “pet food.”

“Racing on a crowded track that can be as hard as concrete at breakneck speed is already an inherently dangerous activity for animals who weigh in at around 1,000 pounds and yet have ankles that are about the same size as a human’s,” said Elliot M. Katz, DVM, President of IDA. “Injuries are part and parcel of these events and we must immediately stop racing horses into the grave.”