Standing Firm

I stand firm that horse racing should be abolished. Now, an anonymous commenter (I know who you are fellow Asian) accused me of being a PETA-Kool Aid drinker. Couldn't be further from the truth. I love animals, yes, but do I value them more than human life? No. Do I think that PETA's tactics resemble intelligent planning? No. Do I think that race horse owners are terrible people? Not necessarily. Unfortunately in this polarized world, people feel the need to categorize others. So if you're not in favor of horse racing because it seems kind of cruel, you're a PETA-loving hippie. I guess people forget that there is a gray area. And then stories like these drop.

So Big Brown's trainer, winner of the Kentucky derby, admits to giving the horse steroids on the 15th of every month. Um, wait, what? So now you're telling me that we're injecting animals with steroids to get a competitive advantage? And don't even start by validating this practice because there is a lot of money on the line. There is a thing called integrity, and clearly horse racing is lacking this. If it is so bad to make illegal modifications to a race car to get an advantage, clearly there is an issue with injecting a horse with steroids. A horse that does not have a choice. It's one thing for an athlete to decide to inject him or herself with performance enhancing drugs, but to force it upon an animal who did not chose to be a race horse is absolutely despicable and a moral outrage.

So again I say, it has to end.

And saying that horses like to run so what's the big deal about horse racing is a five cent argument at best. Horses may naturally run, but lets not forget they are being whipped all for entertainment purposes. By no means am I saying that the whipping is what makes it a cruel sport, but rather the fact that this is not natural if you're forcing the horse to run. This would not be a horse in its natural state.