I have had family involved in the horse racing industry my whole life, so maybe I'm biased, but I don't think the sport is cruel. Like Mary Jo and Erika said, individual owners can be cruel to their horses, but what is new about some people being cruel? The entire sport should not be condemned because of the actions of a few people who break the rules - drugging their horses, masking injuries, etc.
As others have echoed, a good racehorse is a serious monetary investment. In purely monetary terms, if the horse dies unexpectedly, whether on the track or just from bad luck - disease, etc., the money lost can be substantial. Beyond money, real horse people love horses, and not just as a payday, but as magnificent animals. My aunt and uncle have done very well in the industry because of their reputation for running a good farm and treating the horses well. For the curious, here is their farm: http://www.murmurfarm.com/ Lastly, the industry is always trying to improve the sport, and that includes protecting the most valuable asset the sport has - the horses. Track are investing in synthetic surfaces because look like they may help lower injury rates. See the story below for the stats - 1.47 injuries per 1000 starts on synthetic track, 2.03 injuries per 1000 starts on dirt. The article doesn't show number of horses per race, but if we guess and say an average of 7 horses per race, the chances of an injury would be .029% on dirt and .021% on a synthetic surface. http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/05/sports/HORSE.php On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 10:18 AM, Rick R wrote: > That's the question. Is horse-racing cruel? > > People say "horses love to run". Sure, put horses in a pasture, and > they'll > run around. Trot, canter, gallop, whatever. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| 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:259847 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
