Although the Kentucky Derby is a widely celebrated holiday in the U.S., it unsurprisingly has a very dark and extensive history of horse abuse.
Though horse racing is extremely popular in the U.S., it’s notoriously abusive. Allegations of drugging and euthanizing horses that are injured or can’t perform have plagued the sport for years, but yet, the Kentucky Derby remains to be one of the most popular athletic events in the country, to date.
Although it may ruin any Derby party plans for this year, it’s important to note the Kentucky Derby’s dark history of horse abuse.
Some pretty devastating things have been found in racing stables — especially for horses that make it to the annual races.
“We wanted to know exactly what happens to thoroughbreds in a top racing stable,” Kathy Guillermo of PETA told The New York Times after accusing trainers of cruelty back in 2014. “It was devastating to see sore, exhausted, drugged horses every single day. Some were in so much pain it hurt them even to stand, yet they were trained and run anyway.”
Some worry this means horse racing won’t be around for much longer — though that might be a good thing.
“If the sport cannot find a way to rid itself of a culture that abides all of this it not only won’t survive — it won’t deserve to survive,” Andrew Cohen wrote in a 2014 article for The Atlantic.
