On the Sad Prevalence of Abuse in the Horse Racing Industry
By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
The New York Times has been issuing a steady stream of reports on:
Ernie Paragallo, the prominent New York thoroughbred breeder and owner whose horses were found emaciated and on their way to slaughter last month, [also] had horses rescued from his Center Brook Farm in 2007. They were starving and required more than a month in an equine hospital in Saratoga Springs.
The Times also wrote:
Paragallo, who was at Aqueduct on Saturday watching his colt Cellar Dweller finish sixth in the $750,000 Wood Memorial, said he had given horses away from his farm in Climax, N.Y., around that time but said he was not aware that they were in poor shape.
Paragallo has yet to be charged with any wrongdoing, but the horse racing industry is one with which I am fairly well acquainted. Horses are "adopted" out of slaughter auctions all the time. More often than not, race horses are treated as money machines and foals bred into starvation because if they can't race and win, too many owners don't care what happens to the animal that they brought into the world.
The Times alleges Paragallo bred foals, allowing some of them to starve while going to the track to wager on one horse he reportedly fed enough so it could race. Great thanks to the New York Times for shedding sunlight on such alleged doings, but this is not as rare as one might think.
The proper regulatory body (here, perhaps, the Jockey Club?) should bar breeders found to have starved or abused even one animal from ever participating in the breeding business again. Is that on the horizon? Methinks not.
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Tags: sports | animal cruelty | animals | horses
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Reader Comments
good is good- bad is bad
you know, the big fact is being looked over by the race veteran in the previous comment. no matter how many retirement programs, etc that are set up for off the track horses this guy -Ernie P.- did a horrible thing to the horses in his care. the punishment should fit the crime! he should be made to care for these horses- with his own hands- until they are well enough to be place with ohters. and when i write with his own hands, by gosh i mean with his own two hands! not one bred type horse "tribe" is with out it's horror stories about abuse, neglect, or wrong doing to the horse in its public and private use. BUT in that same spoon there have be heoric efforts by the different "tribes" when in fact the metal meets the meat.
I have a mutt bunch of horses that i dearly love. anyone here that has horses knows that to have a horse(s) is to know what sacrifice is. the person will sacrifice a huge amount of time and money to the animals they love. i'm a working class person that has sacrificed her time and her money in making her horses comfortable. and i stress money! is it worth it? Heck yes! am i the perfect horse owner? NO but i do make the effort to becoming better.
basically, straving a horse is BAD and should have a fitting punishment to imprint just how bad it is. let him invest HIS time to nurse these horses back to health. the horse "tribe" in general is a good bunch of people.
Horse Racing
I've ridden the show circuit for 15 years and my family's invested in racing syndicates so I am fairly familiar with a number of horse-related industries.
Many sport horses are treated very well during their careers--given the best veterinary care, feed, and exercise.
One of the most pressing concerns, though, is what happens to thoroughbreds in the long term, once they are off the track. As many of you are aware, Ferdinand, the Kentucky Derby winner, was eventually sent to slaughter. Magic Flute, another winning racer, went to slaughter recently. I have also seen a number of sound, fine thoroughbreds rescued one step from the slaughterhouse.
Although the original owners probably did not want these horses sent to killers, they still ended up there. Alex Brown, an exercise rider and industry insider, writes very compellingly about rescuing thoroughbreds from the kill pen.
All horse owners need to ask themselves: Where will my animal spend the last days of his life?
Horse Racing Industry
Would anyone care to comment on the Nurse Mare Farms and the suffering that accures to the offspring of the Nurse Mares. I doubt it just another dirty little secret of the racing industry.
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