Monday, December 14, 2009

I'm SOOO skeered

The most absurd thing I read today, in defense of the horse racing industry:

Thing is, the recreational horse industry needs the racing folks. They share horses, trainers, vets, farriers, feed growers, hay suppliers, tack shops, arenas and eager enthusiasts. Lose racing, and the whole culture could come crashing down.


There you have it. If we lose the horse racing industry, no one will want to own horses anymore. I read it in the Baltimore Sun so it must be true.

Let the horse racing industry die an honorable death. The resources that get burnt up for racing can be put to a higher and better use. Saving a dying industry that few people want makes us poorer, not richer.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is a case to be made either way. In response to this quoted claim, someone might say that if racing stops, horse breeding for racing contracts resulting in lowering the number of horses that need adoption at the ripe old age of 4. Fewer horses will need to be put down after suffering though starvation and transportation in manure and urine soaked trailers with 5x the number of recommended horses inside. Horses shouldn't be run like that at age 2, any vet who says otherwise is lying or dangerous.

Many recreational horse owners do adopt these cast offs from the racing industry, but few would go along with the way these creatures are treated after the possibility of making money evaporates.

But also, some of that racing mentality or culture has infected recreational horse people. Horses are traded like equipment to achieve bigger and brighter ribbons for owners which is another method of payment.

Would we go around trading dogs? If dog owners or parents behave this way, we generally call it irresponsible. When you go into a situation, you are responsible for knowing what lies ahead.

Anonymous said...

But they're tasty, so we can start eating horses instead.

Eludius said...

Using the free market theory, if Florida, California, and New York can do it better, then the Maryland horse racing industry deserves to die. As Metallica says, "Sad, but true".