Betting on Horse Racing, Ethical or no ?

[fiulpro]

Hello guys so just recently I came across an article which had a lot of stuff to say about the betting on horse racing and trust me when I say that *I was horrified beyond words*. I do believe it's my moral duty to share the article and the reality of horse racing.
Let's start with the source link : https://olivethompson.medium.com/you-bet-they-die-the-ugly-truth-of-horse-racing-afe74f9368ff

In the past I did Believe that the horses were taken good care of , well it was actually portrayed in that way , the beautiful clothes and amazing food they were given everyday. But unfortunately betting on horse racing is supporting animal abuse since :
1. Most of these horses are taken for training from an early age , some of the die , annually 750 and many of them as much as 10,000 are sent to slaughter houses.
2. The horses are drugged and mistreated

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) cites that 24 horses will suffer a fatal breakdown during racing every week. This does not even take into account the number of horses that sustain injuries that they will still be forced to perform with, nor the amount of horses that acquire abusive treatment that does not get noticed by activists, other trainers or the public.

Unfortunately horse racing is something that government won't make illegal since it goes bring a lot of revenue. But we can change things : asking these companies for the ethical treatment of animals , not overcrowding the training grounds so that the animals are not disposed of , drugs, mental abuse and physical abuse should be made illegal. Things like these have to be done.
Next time you participate in the horse racing event you have to make sure to see the state they are being kept , if you do suspect something bad , I do believe social media is something though which you can actually reach millions of people.

For the companies who are involved in the horse racing , I urge you guys go please look into the article and take into consideration if our betting , your profits , the government taxes are not being payed on the dead carcasses of the animals who did not sign up for this.

**This topic is self moderated , please do share your points but please don't give me an excuse to report your comments or delete them , these things should be taken seriously , our games should not harm anyone and I believe this article is something I had to share so that we can try and spread information about positive changes in this industry**

Thank you

[jackg]

I don't know on how much I trust information from peta anymore but I do think that horse sports like racing and dressage include fairly cruel practices at their core for quite a few trainers.

I know they used to (and probably do still) "destroy" horses at track side when they break a limb in the UK rather than giving them to time it takes for the injury to heal (presumably because they'd have to retire them anyway).

The main dietary requirement of horses from my own research was mostly grass also so they wouldn't be too hard just to keep on once they retire so it's quite confusing why they go off to slaughter when a "grass cutter" still seems to be a saught after job - if it is that grass they can eat. But if the owner of the house is trying to breed them they might not want to give them away for free - apparently farmers in the UK routinely throw away producs that don't sell as well to keep their profits up...

I think the horse racing sport has come quite a distance though as it is getting some regulations and light drawn on a negative normally leads to a gap fill at some point if enough people care. You can see horses trying to go round on their own even without a jockey so they would probably do that anyway (the trainer and jockey are probably the liabilities tbh I've seen a horse win without a jockey - it was quite a while ago).

[Lorence.xD]

PETA is not a credible group to look out for when it comes to animal rights, they euthanize shelter dogs remember that. Horse racing has been around for a long time, I do think that if we use them for entertainment but with a good condition then I think that it is not something we should be worried about. What we should be worried of is the forced breeding of winning horses via artificial insemination, that thing is just a luxury for rich people, getting a breed of a winning stallion. If the game harms anyone, human or animal, I do think that there is a problem and a question of ethical or not is just a discovery away. Humans are enjoying blood sport like boxing so what seems to be the problem for horses racing on track, I do not get their point because the former seems more unethical in my opinion.

[jackg]

PETA is not a credible group to look out for when it comes to animal rights, they euthanize shelter dogs remember that.

Yeah I'm sure it's like 80-95% of animals too it's quite sad...

Humans are enjoying blood sport like boxing so what seems to be the problem for horses racing on track, I do not get their point because the former seems more unethical in my opinion.

The human talks and consents to being there. The horse can't, assumed consent can count as consent of you can determine its sentiment though - just because something can't talk doesn't mean you can't determine their emotion.

[carlisle1]

I have seen some exercise on how to train a Horse specially those newly captured from the wild in which they are being abused and maltreated just to be ready for this sports so i think some of the reports are true about the animal cruelty.

on the other hand this sports has been running for long and yeah big revenue for the government,sports and Gambling community.

Maybe there must be regulation and strict policy for the horse trainer because they are the one who's involve on this while the Jockey and the owners at most time love their horses as this will bring them income.

Bad the saddest part is that after they become injured or old,all of them goes to slaughter houses and did not gain any respect for their death.

this is between rules and implementation because i'm sure this sports/gambling will continue for even more years from now.

[robelneo]

I'm betting on horse racing and this is not to refute or defend the horse racing industry, but I have a friend who used to work as steward to stable of horses according to him the owner will not let the horse run if it is proven that he is sick, they are spending millions of pesos to care for their horse and they will not ruin it in just one race, and it's also true that they kill a horse once it suferred from fractured, if the fractured is permanent and will just hurt the horse all his life they kill it's more of a mercy killing.

[ethereumhunter]

I think it is not right to use an animal to be used for betting to satisfy our pleasure, which is illegal in some countries. But in another country, maybe horse racing is legal. We don't know what they did to that horse in the camp (I called camp isolation instead of training grounds) because the horse has been forced to do some training, which I believe is very tough. The companies will hide their activity from the public, and if the media come to them, the company will say that everything is under control. The company wants to have a stronger horse that will have a big chance to win in any race, but I don't know how many horses have been dead because of the hard training.

[Hippocrypto]

I'm betting on horse racing and this is not to refute or defend the horse racing industry, but I have a friend who used to work as steward to stable of horses according to him the owner will not let the horse run if it is proven that he is sick, they are spending millions of pesos to care for their horse and they will not ruin it in just one race, and it's also true that they kill a horse once it suferred from fractured, if the fractured is permanent and will just hurt the horse all his life they kill it's more of a mercy killing.

So sad to hear for those horses being killed due to unworthiness despite of illness, they should medicate and cure the physical problems of the horse and don't cause any harm on it. This is an intelligent animal on planet, they're not worthy of being maltreated. Maybe this racing game would be done virtually and not with horses to be on race track, or else there's an independent institutions who handles horses with disabilities in order to stop possible mercy killing on them.

[Rodeo02]

I'm betting on horse racing and this is not to refute or defend the horse racing industry, but I have a friend who used to work as steward to stable of horses according to him the owner will not let the horse run if it is proven that he is sick, they are spending millions of pesos to care for their horse and they will not ruin it in just one race, and it's also true that they kill a horse once it suferred from fractured, if the fractured is permanent and will just hurt the horse all his life they kill it's more of a mercy killing.

This is true because if they insist on playing it, the chances of winning are slim. it was actually used to ride the horse even in ancient times. the only difference now is that we used them for gambling, it will only be abuse if the horse keeper is abusive for the horse he took care of,and at a time when they are as useless as you say .

[kotajikikox]

I'm betting on horse racing and this is not to refute or defend the horse racing industry, but I have a friend who used to work as steward to stable of horses according to him the owner will not let the horse run if it is proven that he is sick, they are spending millions of pesos to care for their horse and they will not ruin it in just one race, and it's also true that they kill a horse once it suferred from fractured, if the fractured is permanent and will just hurt the horse all his life they kill it's more of a mercy killing.

So sad to hear for those horses being killed due to unworthiness despite of illness, they should medicate and cure the physical problems of the horse and don't cause any harm on it. This is an intelligent animal on planet, they're not worthy of being maltreated. Maybe this racing game would be done virtually and not with horses to be on race track, or else there's an independent institutions who handles horses with disabilities in order to stop possible mercy killing on them.

That's the sad part because of them being killed after their service and popularity but they are still animal for the eye of their handlers so the best thing they need to do is let them become Food for the Human,things that i believe was not fair because they use to give them winnings and good times just to let them die that way.

The gambling community does not care about this instance as the important thing is how much they will get if the Horse wins.
This must be change and the authority must do act against these trainer and handlers.
Animals has feeling also like humans and they must not be treated this way.

[avikz]

If you think that animal abuse should end, they should first stop having meat, dairy and poultry products because at some stages of these production lifecycle, animal abuse happens! In slaughter houses, animal are killed in seconds which ends all the pain in one quick slaughter process but in dairy industry, cows are abused through their entire life for milk.

I can suggest many videos but this one is particularly good. Do have a look,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1ZJOnfTry8

It explains how cows are constantly kept pregnant for the benefit of the industry so that they can be milked. So if you want to stop their abuse, you should stop having any kind of milk products!

Racing horses are still treated in a better way than these food industries. But that's how the business works! Life is not equally fair to all! There are differences among the human life quality as well. While people in poor African countries live a miserable life, people in US gets unemployment benefits for just being unemployed. So since life is not equal to all I don't think the article written Olive Thompson will have any impact on my perspective towards horse racing business!

[Lorence.xD]

Humans are enjoying blood sport like boxing so what seems to be the problem for horses racing on track, I do not get their point because the former seems more unethical in my opinion.

The human talks and consents to being there. The horse can't, assumed consent can count as consent of you can determine its sentiment though - just because something can't talk doesn't mean you can't determine their emotion.

Well, most horses are bred especially for racing so I do not see the problem with that. Consent is debatable but I do not think that it will be of no difference whether the animal can consent or not, the responsibility of consent should not be of the horse but of its breeder/owner.

[covfefe_]

It's obvious that animals don't have the same ambitions and accomplishment and using that animal for what it was raised for gives a larger sense of achievement for the life of that animal. There's no better use of meat animals than being meat. A meat animal being a diet of a human is a contribution of that animal to the ecosystem and it's life certainly made a difference than dying of old age and rotting.
Similarly the animals raised to entertain would achieve more if they carry on with their job than being on plate of someone or being prey of other animals or disease or old age. 

[swogerino]

I think that in every business where making money from animals is involved like horse and dog racing there is place for abuse.I doubt though this to be massive in the industry.Once I saw a documentary about a person who kept his racing dog with all the best things of this world so it really depends as sometimes maybe not ethical but most of the time I believe it is.

[mu_enrico]

If you think that animal abuse should end, they should first stop having meat, dairy and poultry products because at some stages of these production lifecycle, animal abuse happens! In slaughter houses, animal are killed in seconds which ends all the pain in one quick slaughter process but in dairy industry, cows are abused through their entire life for milk.

Yeah, and the premise that "animals have rights" is questionable, and whichever paths we take will always end up in "abusing" and killing them for our benefits.

Anyway, if the problem is with abuses, lots of injured/fatally injured, or disposable horses, I think there should be a limit to how many horses they can have, what substance is not allowed, to make sure equal playing field for all players. This will solve the problem using different reasons, not animal rights, but for the sake of competition.

Just like FIFA with financial fair play and drug tests.

[Kakmakr]

Yes, I actually read about this 3 years ago in this article : https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/racing-losers-shipped-slaughter-mexico-canada/ and I decided never to bet on horse racing again.

After that I saw this video on "Youtube" and it just strengthened my view about this ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp-ALoBRW20
<< Warning DO NOT watch this if you are sensitive to animal cruelty >>

You should seriously consider not to support the horse racing industry, if they cannot find a better solution for this.

[AicecreaME]

The main dietary requirement of horses from my own research was mostly grass also so they wouldn't be too hard just to keep on once they retire so it's quite confusing why they go off to slaughter when a "grass cutter" still seems to be a saught after job - if it is that grass they can eat. But if the owner of the house is trying to breed them they might not want to give them away for free - apparently farmers in the UK routinely throw away producs that don't sell as well to keep their profits up...

Sad to say but in any sports that includes animals such as racing and cock fighting, they never let them eat their main dietary food, instead they feed them foods that includes chemicals to boost their body beyond their limits. They give vitamins to them, i.e. is steroids which is sometimes can't take by the body of a certain horse that leads to a disease and later would be slaughter.

That's the sad reality behind on those entertaining games. Animal cruelty is still rising all over the world especially poaching wild animals. Animals don't deserve such cruelty. They can still race them without using any drugs and not sending them to slaughter house when they can't race anymore.

[Yudhisthir]

Use of animals in sports and entertainment is always a ethical dilemma. Animals can't give there consent.
And with use of different drugs and unnatural diet for the animals to make them larger and stronger. And with generations of artificial breeding, we are making an animal that are much different and not of their real identity. Animal based sports should be discouraged. And the ones involved should be kept free of drugs and artificial gene editing should be banned.

[rijaljun]

Well I'm not really fan of sports and other games that uses animals or insects such as
1. Greyhound racing
2. Cockfighting
3. Spider fighting
4. Horse racing

and other sports that animal was used to. I think it's unethical to use creatures for our entertainment we should just rely on sports betting like football, basketball, baseball and others.

[rhomelmabini]

In the past I did Believe that the horses were taken good care of , well it was actually portrayed in that way , the beautiful clothes and amazing food they were given everyday. But unfortunately betting on horse racing is supporting animal abuse since :
1. Most of these horses are taken for training from an early age , some of the die , annually 750 and many of them as much as 10,000 are sent to slaughter houses.
2. The horses are drugged and mistreated

What we really see in the movies are different from the realities more likely it's being distorted to look like these animals especially that are used on sports are taken care of, the harsh reality.

For the companies who are involved in the horse racing , I urge you guys go please look into the article and take into consideration if our betting , your profits , the government taxes are not being payed on the dead carcasses of the animals who did not sign up for this.

I don't think that they even care about it more likely they'll feed their pockets first before that. Animal cruelty will always be there even eating that crunchy fridge chicken from KFC will count as one, I believe that these cruelties will never end but at least it should be minimized.