Posts Tagged ‘anti-slaughter’

By Ray Paulick

One of the Thoroughbred industry’s biggest challenges may also present one of its greatest opportunities. The challenge, brought to the fore this year by a series of widely publicized events but always lingering just off center stage, is the issue of animal welfare. How the industry deals with this subject may be one of its last, best opportunities to derail our slow but steady march toward irrelevance in the eyes of the general public.

The death of Eight Belles in this year’s Kentucky Derby, from all indications, was a freak accident, one of those incidents that could not have been prevented by anyone. But her demise, along with revelations about the routine administration of anabolic steroids to many of the sport’s best performers, shined a spotlight on racing that revealed to the general public some of its darkest truths.

Foremost among those is the question of what becomes of a Thoroughbred when it is no longer useful as a racing or breeding animal. Some owners and breeders take great measures to insure either a productive second life for their horses or dispose of them through humane euthanasia. Too many horses slip through the cracks, however, and end up on meat wagons headed to slaughter houses in Canada or Mexico, or are simply abandoned.

The perception of our sport is shaped by media reports of the cruelty of slaughter or abandonment of Thoroughbreds, and it does not present an image attractive to many Americans, especially a younger generation that is more in tune with animal welfare issues.

That is the challenge.

The opportunity lies in the numerous programs and untold number of volunteers who work to find second homes for Thoroughbreds as riding, pleasure or performance horses, or as therapeutic animals used in programs for the mentally, spiritually or physically challenged, and in prisons where they have helped rehabilitate hardened criminals.

It’s time for the racing and breeding industry to fully embrace programs like the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, CANTER, Rerun, Tranquility Farm, Thoroughbred Charities of America and others, instead of pretending the issue of unwanted ex-racehorses does not exist.

Last week I heard a presentation on how our sport can energize its “brand” from marketing expert David Aaker at the Asian Racing Conference in Tokyo, Japan. Aaker, an advisor to Japanese advertising giant Dentsu and professor emeritus at the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley, talked about how some other businesses have energized their brands by hitching their wagons to something outside of their core business that it is interesting, relevant and compelling to their customer base.

Avon, one of the oldest cosmetic brands for women, was cited as one very good example. There was little the company could do to energize itself by making better lipstick, Aaker said, so it found an issue with great relevance and interest to its female customers: breast cancer. Avon put enormous resources into a breast cancer awareness campaign, created a foundation to support breast cancer research, and promoted an annual Avon Walk for Breast Cancer throughout the world. Breast cancer research and other social issues relevant to women were foremost among Avon CEO Andrea Jung’s program to rebuild and re-energize the Avon cosmetic brand. It has been a great success.

What social issue is of great importance to current and potential racing fans? I think that’s a no-brainer: it’s the humane treatment of the animals that give us so much pleasure and entertainment.

Look into the eyes of any fan when a horse dumps its rider in the post parade and takes off on a perilous solo run, or when a horse breaks down in a race or is carted off on an ambulance. It’s not just the champions our fans care about, either, it’s those low-level claimers they’ve followed in the first or last race on any day at any track.

Racing is fortunate to have people who are animal lovers and do what they can to protect them. Just today, Madeleine Paulson Pickens is reported to have come up with a plan to rescue from death the tens of thousands of wild mustangs who have roamed the American West and are so much a part of our culture. The late Paul Mellon bequeathed a most generous gift to the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation that will benefit former racehorses for years to come. John Hettinger dedicated the last years of his life to ending slaughter and protecting our horses.

But it’s time for racing, as an institution, to understand that what’s good for our horses is good for our sport, to face this challenge and embrace it as an opportunity. The Jockey Club realized this with its recent announcement that it will give to horse retirement causes and offer breeders an easy way to donate funds to this cause whenever they register a foal. Suffolk Downs officials established a zero-tolerance policy against trainers sending horses to slaughter and a few other tracks have followed their lead.

But the clock is ticking. Voters in Massachusetts banned dog racing in that state Nov. 4 because of concerns over animal welfare. It’s not a stretch of the imagination to see similar measures taken against the racing of horses. Think about that for a minute.

We have some very bright people in this industry, people who can understand what marketing expert Aaker was talking about with Avon and apply the same principle to help both the horses and the business of Thoroughbred racing. We can energize the Thoroughbred racing "brand" by taking on one of our biggest challenges and viewing it as an opportunity to sell our sport to a new generation.

Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick

Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort in West Virginia has notified horsemen they will lose stalls and may be excluded from the track if any horses racing at Mountaineer end up at the Sugarcreek auction in Ohio, the Amish-run livestock sale where many horses end up in the hands of killer buyers and headed for slaughter facilities in Canada or Mexico.

The new policy appeared on a Tuesday overnight entry sheet at the Chester, W. Va., track. Suffolk Downs racetrack in East Boston, Mass., was a pioneer in instituting a policy to prevent horses going to slaughter auctions, and Magna Entertainment recently adopted a company-wide policy at its tracks.

Mountaineer also is instituting a ban on toe grabs in excess of two millimeters in height on the front feet. That policy takes effect Dec. 1.

Thanks to the Paulick Report reader who brought this new policy at Mountaineer to our attention.

 Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report

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Saturday was a bad day for horses. One of their best friends in the world, John Hettinger, passed away at the age of 74. No one fought harder to end the slaughter of horses in the United States than John Hettinger.

He was tireless and passionate about ending slaughter. He talked about it, wrote about it, did something about it. He was a man of words and of action. And he put his money where his mouth was.

Of all the things John Hettinger ever said or wrote about horse slaughter, there is one paragraph that has stayed with me. It came from an article he wrote in 2003 and asked me to publish in the Bloodhorse.

 

“How do we as an industry feel about our horses?” he wrote. “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?”

Fast cows without horns? That line got me. Until then, I was ambivalent about slaughter, because I considered horses “livestock,” which, technically, they are. But that simple but brilliant observation taught me there are different kinds of livestock – the kind that are bred and raised for human consumption, and the kind that are bred and raised for sport, but end up in the food chain by unfortunate circumstances.

Thank you, Mr. Hettinger, for helping me finally understand what was so clear to you.

The following press release about John Hettinger comes from the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. Please consider a donation to TRF, Grayson Jockey Club Research Foundation, Blue Horse Charities or to any of the many other worthy equine welfare organizations in his memory.  – Ray Paulick

TRF Mourns loss of Humanitarian, Horse Lover John Hettinger

 

John A. Hettinger, a tireless advocate for retired race horses and one of the leading figures in the fight to end horse slaughter in this country, passed away Sept. 6 at his Akindale Farm in Pawling, N.Y., after a lengthy illness. Hettinger was 74.

 

A longtime horse owner and breeder, Hettinger became a passionate activist for the retired Thoroughbred in the late 1990s. He personally bought hundreds of horses to keep them from going to slaughter, was an outspoken critic of anyone standing in the way of passage of legislation to ban horse slaughter and started Blue Horse Charities, a charity that raised millions to provide for retired thoroughbreds. Hettinger was also an important friend to the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. He was a long-time member of the group’s board of directors.

"We at the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation are deeply saddened by the loss of John Hettinger," TRF Executive Director Diana Pikulski said. "John was among the most loyal and honorable people I have ever known. He was the Thoroughbreds strongest advocate and he took action to back his convictions. The TRF was honored to have his huge support and presence as a director. John personified our mission and made us a stronger, better organization and we are honored to continue his efforts on behalf of our equine athletes.

"John created a sanctuary at Akindale, his family farm, where hundreds of thoroughbreds saved from the slaughter pens were given a home. The TRF started the first Thoroughbred retraining center in the country at the Exceller Farm, the use of which was donated to the TRF by Mr. Hettinger. John also created Blue Horse Charities to raise money from thoroughbred horses sales to fund thoroughbred adoption agencies.

"It did not matter who he rubbed the wrong way in his effort to have the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act passed by the U.S. Congress. John always said that his best friends all had four legs."

In 2000, his efforts on behalf of retired horses were recognized by the industry, which awarded him a Special Eclipse Award.

"There are two things that flourish in the dark—mushrooms and horse slaughter," Hettinger once said. "Most people don’t know it’s going on. We must deny them the darkness."

Hettinger was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the New York Racing Association and Chairman Emeritus of the Grayson Jockey Club Research Foundation. Racing under the name of Akindale Farm, Hettinger campaigned such stakes-winning horses as Chase the Dream, Genuine Regret, Jazzing Around, Lady DAccord, Move It Now, Prospectors Flag, Up Like Thunder and Virgo Libra. Akindale also stood such stallions as DAccord, Personal Flag, Stacked Pack and Sir Wimborne.

Hettinger’s big horse was Warfie, who he said gave him his biggest thrill as an owner when she won the Long Island Handicap in 1989.

He was also the majority owner of the Fasig-Tipton sales company until it was sold earlier this year to Dubai-based Synergy Investments Ltd.