>>> A more effective protest would be not to bet (I don't), not to buy >>> products advertised by sponsors (can't remember who they were, so they >>> were not very memorable) or never again to ship U.P.S. (not practical >>> and I love the UPS man). ... I used to buy racetrack rejects. In fact >>> I have a retiree here now. Some had been wonderfully treated. Some had >>> been handled in a way you and I would consider abuse. Maybe buying them >>> supported the industry. I'm not sure. It gave futures to future-less >>> horses.
Good points, Nancy. A lot of things we don't like don't have simple solutions, and I certainly wouldn't be judgmental about your buying OTT horses - good for you if you saved even a few. I seriously doubt any of us on this list approve of TB racing - I despise the greed and abuse - but no one is monitoring what I watch on my TV, and I doubt anyone cares. I only saw the KY Derby this year - I don't care enough to remember to turn on the races, and we just happened to turn it on expecting to see the evening news. But, I don't mind admitting that I watched it - and it was amazing to see Big Brown win by such a wide margin, and horrifying to see Eight Belles die just seconds after her strong second place finish. If not watching something on free TV is the best protest I can make, then I'm simply being an ostrich, sticking my head in the sand and wishing it away, and that doesn't help anything. And if no one watched the sports that we we find disturbing, then how can we keep a pulse on when things are changing - either for the better or for the worse? If everyone just ignored everything they didn't like, then how on earth would anything ever change - in sports, or even in social or political matters? If someone finds something so disturbing that they feel they can't watch it, then that's understandable, but personally, I'm glad that some people are tenacious enough to follow and fight for certain causes, even when what they see or do is difficult to witness. I'd even go so far as to say seeing that brief glimpse of Eight Belles lying in an unknown state on the track in the bedlam that followed the race made me even more willing to speak up against the sport. As horrifying as it was, I'm glad I saw it - maybe it helped jolt the horrors of TB racing back onto my radar screen, and hopefully onto the radar screens of millions of others. Karen Thomas, NC
