Shipping unwanted racehorses across U.S. borders to be killed for their meat is a common practice hard to rationalize and hard to swallow.
CLOSE You may be disappointed in the outcome of the Kentucky Derby, but maybe you should be happy that it happened. Dominique Yates, Louisville Courier Journal
The HBO "Real Sports" exposé that aired Tuesday night said little that hasn’t already been said about the state of an industry under siege from prosecutors, politicians and animal rights activists. Yet in recycling graphic slaughterhouse footage from 2008, and in showing a filly being hauled off to meet her doom, reporter Bernard Goldberg illuminated racing’s darkest, deadliest dynamic.
The core problem is that once a racehorse ceases to be an asset — on the track or in the breeding shed — it becomes an expensive liability. Susan Brown, program manager for Second Stride, a horse rescue nonprofit with farms in Prospect and Pleasureville, says it costs $900 per month to care for a horse, not counting veterinary or farrier costs.
Excess inventory is the bane of any business, and this is particularly true in those businesses where the inventory must be fed as well as stored. The Jockey Club estimates last year’s foal crop will ultimately include about 19,925 registered thoroughbreds. “The vast majority of industry people interviewed believed that overall horse welfare would decrease if the option for slaughter was prohibited in the U.S.,” it said, citing the unappealing alternatives of abandonment and neglect and the prospect of starvation.
On some level, the carnivores among us may recognize some hypocrisy in objecting to horses facing the same fate as the cows and pigs we consume. Still, that recognition does not relieve racing of the expectation that horses be treated more like pets than like meals. That 1986 Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand was ultimately processed for pet food in Japan reflects cultural differences that remain difficult for many Americans to reconcile.
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