If you've ever seen a horse break a leg and go down on a racetrack, you'll never forget it. Sometimes the injured animal will get up and try to run with the limb dangling below the break.
Tracks have become adept at hiding this horror. A vehicle follows the Thoroughbreds in every race, and when a horse goes down, huge fabric screens are pulled from the truck and quickly erected between the horse and the people in the stands.
But it's not the spectators who need protection _ it's the horses.
That became clear this year when a public that has grown intolerant of racing's cruelty erupted in outrage after 23 Thoroughbreds died at Santa Anita Park in Los Angeles between December and April. In response, Santa Anita officials took unprecedented steps to prevent further carnage and enacted rules to protect horses. This was a good first step, and so far, no more horses have died.
But the changes must not stop here. The Kentucky Derby and the Triple Crown season will be haunted by those 23 horses _ and thousands of others who have died _ unless the entire racing industry does away with the worst forms of abuse immediately. All 38 racing states should ban all medications in the two weeks before a race, ban trainers with multiple medication violations, stop pushing very young horses beyond their capacity, end whipping, and switch to high-quality synthetic tracks, which are known to be safer.
Even that isn't enough, but it's a start. The racing industry must be held accountable for the harm that it has caused.
Broken bones should never have become business as usual. But the more than two dozen horses who die on tracks every single week in the U.S. have been sold out by an industry that puts speed and winning above decent care.
While several factors may contribute to a horse's leg snapping, evidence from thousands of necropsies of Thoroughbreds overwhelmingly shows that most horses who break legs have been recently injured. In other words, unfit horses are being forced to train and race when they should be recuperating. These horses don't appear sore because they're given a constant cocktail of medications that mask injury. They feel OK because they've got painkillers, anti-inflammatory drugs, muscle relaxants, sedatives and other drugs in their bodies. But they're not OK, and sometimes they die.
It made good sense for Santa Anita Park to call for a ban on more than a dozen anti-inflammatory drugs, decrease the allowable limit of medication in a horse's system on race day, mandate inspections of horses for training as well as for racing, require trainers to disclose veterinary and medication records, and more. This is how they can find out if horses are injured and, if they are, allow them to recover fully.
It's also logical to use a synthetic track, which has been proven to be safer; allow horses to develop properly before forcing them to run at high speeds; and get rid of the trainers who think a syringe full of drugs is a prerequisite for every race.
And finally, it's time to stop the whipping. The constant refrain of "we love our horses" coming from the racing community rings hollow when the very animals who supposedly love to race are being beaten to make them run.
Owners, trainers and racetracks, the next move is yours. Do right by the horses.
