An editorial today in the Philadelphia Inquirer says to crack down on horse doping. The nations lonely eyes turned to Barbaro (with reference to Simon and Garfunkel) the past few months. However, countless horses drop dead of cardiac events, many related to doping. Not to beat a dead horse, but here goes:
Every day in horse racing, racehorses suffer injuries as Barbaro did, but when they lose their value as money-makers, they are simply destroyed, without even being taken off the racetrack dirt. Frequently in racing, they drop dead of heart attacks, as well.
Maybe it's time to make the racing world a little more accountable for what happens to these athletes. In racing, unlike any other horse sport, they begin their working lives as babies. Before they are 2 years old, they spend almost every day running hard in practice and in real races. Their fragile legs are still soft, not yet developed into hard bone. Daily, these young horses are pounded, and pumped full of drugs, in standard use by nearly all trainers.
How many horse doped at the Kentucky Derby? All of them, on a diuretic, Lasix.
For example, every horse that ran in the Kentucky Derby this year was on furosemide, also known as Lasix. This drug, originally meant for horses that bled from the lungs when they ran (a common condition), is now given to most racehorses because trainers feel it makes the horse run faster. Lasix is a diuretic that makes the horse expel body fluids. It's given only a few hours before race time. The horse urinates heavily until race time. While racing at top speed, even in hot weather, the horse is in borderline dehydration. In no other sport, human or animal, are diuretics given to an athlete just before competing. We punish human athletes for taking performance-enhancing drugs, yet horses are given such drugs right before the starting gun. Is the welfare of the horse being considered here?
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Might the extensive doping of horses affect the sport?
This was not always the case. We haven't had a Triple Crown winner for 28 years - could one cause be the extensive use of these drugs on the horses, causing bones to shatter and hearts to give out (both consequences have been observed time and again). Is it not time to take another look at this picture?
I recently rescued one of these racehorses. He was being given high doses of Lasix and other drugs. His stomach was ulcerated, and his kidneys were barely functioning. It took months to rehabilitate him. He's one of the lucky ones to get a new chance. Most of the unlucky ones go to slaughter and become meat for human consumption in foreign countries. Very few get rescued in this country, even if they can leave the track in one piece...
Barbaro has won a bigger race than the Kentucky Derby or even the Triple Crown. I want to think that all he's gone through these last months, making us more aware of the plight of the racehorse, will help all the other Barbaros out there, now and in the future.
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