What other sport allows the deaths of up to 2,000 athletes a year? | Opinion

We are conditioned from birth in America to view horseracing as sport, the Thoroughbred as athlete. Indeed, the upcoming Kentucky Derby proudly proclaims itself “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports,” and ESPN ranked Secretariat the 20th Century’s 35th greatest athlete. But if true, if horseracing is a sport, then that word must be redefined, for the competitive racing of horses resembles no other accepted sport on the planet.

In what other sport are the bodies of pubescent/adolescent athletes abused with impunity? Would-be racehorses are usually sold (by their breeders) into the system at the tender age of one – mere babies. Now under the yoke of their first trainer, the grinding begins almost immediately. While a horse does not reach full musculoskeletal maturity till the age of six, the typical racehorse is thrust into intensive training at 18 months, and raced at two – the rough equivalent of a first-grader. In necropsies obtained through FOIA requests, we see time and again 4-, 3-, even 2-year-old horses dying with chronic conditions like osteoarthritis and degenerative joint disease – clear evidence of the incessant pounding these unformed bodies are forced to absorb.

In what other sport are the athletes kept in intensive, solitary confinement? Except for a brief exercise/training period in the morning (or when racing), the horses, as a rule, are kept locked – alone – in tiny 12×12 stalls for over 23 hours a day, making a mockery of the industry claim that “horses are born to run, love to run” and a cruelty all the worse for being inflicted on innately social animals like horses. Prominent equine veterinarian Dr. Kraig Kulikowski likens this to keeping a child locked in a 4×4 closet for over 23 hours a day. Imagine that. Relatedly, practically all the horse’s natural instincts and desires are thwarted, creating an emotional and mental suffering that is brought home with crystal clarity in the stereotypies commonly seen in confined racehorses: cribbing, wind-sucking, bobbing, weaving, pacing, kicking, even self-mutilation.

In what other sport are the athletes condemned to a life as chattel? By law, racehorses are things – pieces of property to be bought, sold, traded, and dumped whenever and however their people decide. In fact, the average racehorse will change hands multiple times over the course of his so-called career, adding anxiety and stress to an already anxious, stressful existence. This near-constant shuffling among trainers, grooms, vets, barns, tracks, and states is a primary reason why some 90% of active racehorses suffer from chronic ulcers.

In what other sport are the athletes routinely dying on the playing field? In the combined 408-year history of America’s four major sports – baseball, football, basketball, hockey – there have been three in-game deaths. Three. U.S. Racing kills about that many every day. Indeed, Horseracing Wrongs has documented – with names, dates, locations, and details – over 10,000 kills just since 2014. We estimate, however, that some 2,000 horses die at U.S tracks every year. Sudden cardiac collapse, or a failed heart. Pulmonary hemorrhage, or bleeding out from the lungs. Blunt-force head trauma from collisions with other horses or the track itself. Broken necks. Severed spines. Ruptured ligaments. Shattered legs – occasionally shattered so severely that the limb remains attached to the rest of the body by skin or tendons only.

And finally, in what other sport are the athletes bled-out and butchered upon retirement? Two independent studies (here, here), as well as industry admissions, reveal that many if not most spent or simply no-longer-wanted racehorses are mercilessly slaughtered at “career’s” end. From “athlete” to meat, in a matter of days.

Truth is, in regard to how the relative animals are treated, there is not a whit of difference between dogracing and horseracing. In fact, one could argue that horseracing is worse for the slaughter. But while one form of animal racing is all but dead – there are currently just two dog tracks left in the entire country; more telling, dogracing is outright prohibited on moral grounds in 42 states – the other continues along merrily as “The Sport of Kings.”

It is high time we right this wrong. Horseracing is animal cruelty. Horseracing is animal killing. Horseracing must end.

Patrick is the founder of Horseracing Wrongs, which documents racehorse deaths and has published in The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, MSNBC, Katie Couric Media, among several others.