Do you consider horse racing a form of animal abuse?

I do consider it a form of animal abuse. The fact they wanted her, the only filly in the race, to become the first filly to win the Kentucky Derby in 20 years, tells me that horse was pushed to the limit. What sickens me is it is all done for the evil money. I bet if you could ask a horse how they feel about being whipped into running beyond any living breathing things capacity, they would be asking, no begging, for someone to help them escape from that abuse. If that jockey had been killed, I wouldn't have felt bad for him one bit. No different than a bull fighter being gored to death. You torment an animal, you get hurt or killed, you deserve it.

They put down all horses if they break a leg, they don't usually spend all they money with the vet. The reason for this is because there are very few blood vessels in the lower leg and often times the leg is never able to heal and if it does the horse is crippled. With the horse that won the derby a couple years back and was put down, they spent thousands and thousands of dollars on surgery and rehab and the leg was still not able to heal properly. And horse racing is not abusive, those horses are treated like royalty, once they are about three years old they are retired from racing and are sent to live on ranches, big expensive ranches. A horse in the wild has more troubles than a racing horse.

The horse broke both her front ankles, the bones were protrouding through the skin. An ankle break in a horse isn't like an ankle break in a human. Please read the vet's report about Eight Belles before making such ignorant remarks. They did the most humane, and the only medically possible, thing for the horse.

If you knew anything at all about horses you would know that it is almost impossible to save a horse that has broken their leg. If there was even a chance they would've tried. Educate yourself on why horses can't be saved before you speak of something you know absolutely nothing about.

its not animal abuse!! These horses get the BEST everything! Food, training, equiptment! Most horses love racing. It would be abuse to make that horse suffer without putting her down!! The owners spend thousands and thousands to pay for these race horses! And crying for 11 hours after the Kentucky Derby? Yeah right!

omg, she could NOT BE SAVED! why do people think this is about money? these people are millionares. do you know how much a horse like that would cost? these people could have payed for it.

now, i do not think horse racing itself is abusive. what is abusive is how they are racing them when they are 3 YEARS OLD. they are still babies!!! that needs to be changed. other than that, no, i do not find it abusive.

and she could not be saved. here is a list of just a few reasons:
1. her bones were comming out of her skin in both ankles
2. she would not be able to run... not in a race... never. she would be locked away in a stall the rest of her life.
3. sice her bones cut through her skin, there would be a huge risk of infection.
4. horse carry 60% of their body weight on their front legs. both of her ankles were broken.
5. it would have been very painful even if they found some wierd, inhamane, way to attempt to save her.
6. the pain of being euthenised is way less than being tortured for hours until you die of an infection
7. there would always be a lot of complecations.

lol at andyman who thinks these horses are retired to great big mansions. The truth actually is that the "lucky" ones get retired to sire more horses. (theyre not really that lucky however cos the need for more money means horses are treated more like a production factory, and often die thru exhaustion)
The unlucky ones end up as pets, by people who then discover having retired racing horses as pets isnt all that easy as they first thought, so they get moved around a lot, and often meet their end at the slaughterhouse..examples - Ferdinand Horse of the Year in 1987, and Exceller, a racehorse who was inducted into the National Racing Museum’s Hall of Fame.

Mostly they get shipped straight to slaughter, ending up in dog food.

Every time there's a major horse race on TV, this question comes up. The horses are very well taken care of. As soon as Big Brown's jockey could see his horse was in distress, he eased up. The crops they use aren't whips, they aren't hurting the horses.

No I don't. It's obvious you know nothing about Horses, let alone their physiology. Putting this horse down has NOTHING to do with economics. Do you think these owners buy a 100 dollar horse and race it until it dies? These are multi-million dollar animals, given multi-million dollar care, do you really think if the horse could've been saved the owners wouldn't have did everything in their power to save it? A horse breaking it's ankles is nothing like a human breaking it's ankles. It's funny how you spout all this BS and obviously have no idea what you're talking about.

You sound like a PETA supporter that does not seek out the facts before opening your mouth. Horses cannot recuperate like humans do from massive leg injuries! People stopped wearing fur coats in public and PETA needed another "scapegoat" issue for which to anger honest, intelligent Americans.....

PETA is another group that consists of liberal leftist extremists..... They splash "red paint" symbolizing blood on people that wear leather or fur clothing..... They hold "die-ins" and practice civil disobedience when protesting stuff like "dead cockroaches", "circus animal behavior" or "bird habitats" are threatened.....

I feel sorry for the horse, but considering they cannot be easily "repaired" or fitted with prostetics like humans when broken limbs occur, freak accidents such as this and the one that occurred to Barbero are unfortunate, but PETA always has to point fingers and blame others when accidents do happen and the trainers/jockeys don't hurt their animals on purpose.

The world would be a better place if PETA and Greenpeace just concentrates on preserving the wildlife of the world and not wasting their time on issues that don't have to do with animal abuse.