SEEKS TO BAN ALL DOMESTICATED ANIMALS
IGNORES EQUINE SAFETY PROGRESS
Horseracing Wrongs portrays itself as a progressive, mainstream organization, but in reality, it’s at the left fringe of animal rights groups, further left than even PETA. Horseracing Wrongs’ words and actions show that this is a group with a radical agenda that goes far beyond horse racing.
On their website, they have written: “we hold that no animal should be bred, domesticated, and used for human purposes. The evil, as we see it, begins and ends with animal property.” According to Horseracing Wrong’s agenda, the 85 million families that own pets shouldn’t have them, America’s 305 million laying hens shouldn’t supply eggs, and Conan, the military dog who helped U.S. special forces run down ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, shouldn’t be helping in the fight against terrorism.
If this group’s cause were adopted by American society, the family pet would be the first casualty. Seeing eye dogs would be outlawed, and you can forget bringing a service animal aboard an airplane for emotional support.
Similarly, their agenda for horse racing paints a chilling future, something out of a Margret Atwood novel. In a 2017 Facebook Post, Patrick Battuello, the group’s founder, said racehorses should be “sterilize[d] to extinction – a planet devoid of Thoroughbreds, Quarter horses, Standardbreds and everything in between.”
In 2019, the group callously exploited the tragic equine deaths that occurred at Santa Anita, as well as the breakdown of Mongolian Groom during the Breeder’s Cup Classic. Horseracing Wrongs sought to capitalize on the intensive media attention, and disavowed the progress of significant equine safety wins in their baffling quest to eliminate the sport.
They are working against efforts that have moved racehorse health issues in the right direction. According to a recent article in The New York Times: “in California, horse deaths have decreased by 60 percent over the last 13 years, with most of the reduction coming in the last couple of years, according to the California Horse Racing Board.” According to the Equine Injury Database, there has been a 20 percent drop in the risk of fatal injuries since data collection began in 2009.
In addition, there have been intensive industry efforts to reduce injuries and fatalities, including extensive improvements and changes at Santa Anita Park and other tracks, as well as the formation of The Thoroughbred Safety Coalition, which is backed by the major racing organizations.
Fortunately, Congress is headed in a sensible direction too. A majority of the House of Representatives is in support of the Horseracing Integrity Act (HIA) which would reform drug usage and provide monitoring and controls similar to those to govern human athletes. The HIA has broad support across the industry and has the backing of true mainstream animal welfare groups such as The Humane Society, which sees the bill as a major step forward in protecting racehorses.
In a recent opinion column published in The Louisville Courier Journal, the national Humane Society’s Valerie Pringle wrote that the group “does not oppose horse racing. Our interest is in improving the welfare of all animals, including racehorses. We believe that horse racing is an industry intertwined with our national character…the first priority in racing must become the health of the horse.”
Horseracing Wrongs considers all of these actions as a compromise of their goals and pointedly refuses to back any of the on-going measures to improve equine health. Battuello did not mince words when he recently said in the East Coast Equestrian that, “we’re out to end horseracing. This is not a welfare-minded endeavor to us.”
Clearly, much work remains to be done to protect horses, and mainstream animal welfare groups are a strong, productive voice in the effort to improve equine health. However, Horseracing Wrongs’ radical agenda does nothing to address the real-world health issues affecting racehorses, and would leave a trail of collateral damage in its wake.
