Where Would All The Horses Go?

reprinted from THE BLOOD-HORSE
pp. 3492-3492, JUNE 28, 2003
by John Hettinger

page 2, continued

• III. CULTURAL. How do we as an industry feel about our horses? Are we horse lovers? Are these animals, who work for us in one way or another throughout their entire lives, sensitive and capable of trust, courage, and generosity of spirit? Or are they fast cows without horns?
  
  It is very common to see Thoroughbreds turned into personalities for promotional purposes, to increase the gate on a given day, for example. "Persimmon likes to have his picture taken"…"Calamity Jane knows when she's won," etc. We've all seen plenty of this kind of thing. We endow them with semi-human characteristics in print and on television when it suits our purposes... then we look the other way when bad things happen. Could this be called hypocritical? Do these animals have these endearing characteristics or don't they? Eating horses is common sense in some cultures but has no place in ours. Almost all horse meat is sent abroad and both slaughter houses now operating in the U.S. are foreign owned. Is it right that we allow our horses to end this way (which involves several days of pain and terror) to supply meat to foreign countries? There are well known fairs which conduct race meets and allow rescue organizations access to their grounds to try and save some of them on the condition that they don't talk about it. If they felt that what is going on was right would this be a condition of access to their grounds?
• IV. IMAGE. There are a lot of people in our industry working hard to put our sport on everyone's "radar screen." They must realize that if they are successful, all aspects of our sport will be better known and understood. The reaction of the American people, should they learn what is going on, is tacitly understood by these people and evidenced by their efforts to sweep it under the rug. The use of words "plants" (for slaughterhouses) and "processing" (for slaughter) attests to this. They should realize that the publicity this activity has garnered over the last couple of years is nothing compared to what is coming as the issue becomes understood by increasing numbers of people, and public relations professionals become involved. Conversely there is a tremendous public relations opportunity here for the Thoroughbred industry should it decide to take a leadership role in abolishing slaughter through legislation. This might have been considered a peripheral issue a couple of years ago, but this is no longer the case.

All the Thoroughbred auction houses in North America have weighed in. The board of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, comprised of every national Thoroughbred organization, voted unanimously to support a ban on the slaughter of Thoroughbreds. And industry leaders such as Ted Bassett, Reiley McDonald, Gary Biszantz, Nadia Sanan, and Nick Zito have all come out definitively opposing horse slaughter, correctly labeling it "unconscionable," "gruesome," and "barbaric." More recently the New Jersey Racing Commission, the New York Breeding and Development Fund, and, by unanimous vote of its trustees, the New York Racing Association, have specifically endorsed the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. We feel that the time has come for all of us in our industry who call ourselves horse lovers to take a leadership role and end this institutionalized cruelty.

Where would all the horses go? They would be retired, adopted out, or euthanized. We have no desire to point a finger at anybody or hurt anybody, but the lowest common denominator cannot be allowed to prevail any longer. We must end the slaughter of horses. The ever-expanding network of rescue agencies operated by horse lovers from coast to coast will put their shoulders to the wheel to make this work.

John Hettinger is a member of The Jockey Club, a trustee for the New York Racing Association, and a director of Fasig-Tipton Co. He formed Blue Horse Charities, which raises money for adoption and retirement programs through Fasig-Tipton sales. Owner of Akindale Farm in New York state, Hettinger was honored with a Special Eclipse Award in 2000.

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