>those people love their horses... >they would NEVER purposefully injure, hurt or kill if they didnt have to.
Has anyone here ever *worked* at a track or with racehorses? I did for several years while working on my admission to vet school, and while I do enjoy watching racing, I do think it does not have the best interest of the animal in mind AT ALL. Any more than dog racing does. Sure, the horses that are good enough to make it to the Derby are generally well-treated and often loved in some respect...but if you work at a regular track and see what goes on and what they do in order to try and keep horses racing long enough to maybe get claimed or manage enough small wins to get back what was put into them you would have serious questions about the sport. These people have to make their living off wins, and there are many that really don't see horses as anything more than a commodity and means to earn a living. There are certainly many very good trainers, grooms and jockeys, etc. as well that don't mistreat their animals, but much, much more that goes on behind the scenes that people just turn a blind eye to. And a lot of it isn't really anything you could really definitely call animal cruelty...just really pushing the bounds of what most of us would consider reasonable. And yes, the breeding for faster and faster horses definitely has a great deal to do with why they can so easily break legs, and part of the problem is that many are so high-strung and difficult to work with and race long after they injure themselves, that when they do break something it is often far harder to deal with than say when an 3-day eventer has a break. That was one thing that was so unusual with Barbaro is how well he dealt with the many surgeries and restrictions after his injury, and even then they were not able to save him. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:259837 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
