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How Humane is Race Horse Retirement?
03/23/2009
In the racing world, when a horse wins big, it wins very big—at the end of a successful career, owners rarely put up these horses for sale, but instead put them out to mate, a multi-million dollar industry. But what happens to the race horses that aren’t
In the racing world, when a horse wins big, it wins very big—at the end of a successful career, owners rarely put up these horses for sale, but instead put them out to mate, a multi-million dollar industry. But what happens to the race horses that aren’t as successful?
One would imagine that after spending several hundred thousand dollars on buying a racehorse, the owners would put up their horses for sale as a way to recoup their investment. But as it turns out, it is usually more profitable for an owner to offer horses for sale to slaughterhouses. Slaughterhouses are eager to find race horses for sale, as their lean, well-nourished meat can sell for a high price in overseas markets (around $15 a pound). Thus when many owners speak of “retirement,” what they really mean is retirement from life as well as from sport.
All of us grew up hearing the stories about glue factories who bought up old horses for sale, but we were reassured by adults that these sorts of stories happened a long time ago. But the practice of horse slaughter is in many ways just as bad of a fate—if not worse—than those horses for sale to abattoirs. After a slaughterhouse has bought retired race horses for sale, they load them up into low trailers with barely enough room to stand, causing the horses to cut their mouths and noses in an attempt to escape. The horses are then unloaded, all of them consciously fearful, and beaten towards what’s called the kill chute, where they fall to their mechanized death. Once butchered, European food merchants buy horses for sale for a fraction of what they resell them for.
While this sort of “retirement” is sometimes justified as a “necessary evil,” the truth of the matter is the horse industry, eager to avoid 10 years of feeding and boarding a retired racehorse, tries to cut their loses through offering horses for sale to slaughterhouses. But luckily, the horse community is fighting back.
In the last few years there has been a surge of rescue ranches and equine hospice, where charities buy up old race horses for sale, then let them live peacefully on ranches and farms. Retired race horses—even when injured—can serve a useful function. Many race horses for sale can become therapeutic tools for abused children, autistic individuals, and those who need physical therapy. Old horses for sale can also be used for riding lessons, or rented for an afternoon of light horseback riding. Some local colleges buy horses for sale in order to teach veterinary medicine or equine massage.
Then, of course, there is the average horse lover. Many individuals love horses, but don’t necessarily need the speed and agility of a perfect-condition racehorse. Buying injured or retired race horses for sale keeps the horse active, loved, and cared fpr, while running a low risk of reinjury.
Many race horse rescue centers will allow members of the public a chance to purchase their horses for sale. One such facility, Old Friends takes in both mares as well as stallions and geldings, and it specializes in thoroughbreds. Former race horse owner Madeline Auerbach, appalled by the practices of equine slaughter, has formed the California Retirement Management Account (CARMA ) as a way of offering tax exemption for race horse owners who offer CARMA their horses for sale. “So far most owners are choosing to support the fund,” Auerbach said. Let’s hope humane retirement is one trend that everyone can come to support.
