I don't know. I'm in favor of better treatment for horses and all animals generally, but the above link read like something out of PETA. Their lastest gig is "Don't eat fish, fish are our friends."

-"We scarcely do any roadwork with flat horses which is good for strengthening bone and hardening-up tendons and ligaments, because of increased traffic..." (O.K. Cars are a problem for horses. Try more track exercise.)

-"But seasoned industry watchers, such as Kareena Grey who runs an investigative organisation called Discover Racing Death (KareenaGreyDiscoverRacingDeath@hotmail.com) is convinced that thousands (of young horses) are simply shot and fed to hunting hounds or turned into pet food." ("Shes convinced" and all that is provided the reader is an email?)

-"Dr Thomas Tobin, of the Department of Veterinary Science at the University of Kentucky, has shown that horses' bones actually become weaker during the course of a race, sometimes by over 40%. The results can be appalling.' (No footnote for this claim, I wonder why? I think I'd accept the bones are stressed, but become half as strong?)

-"An added attraction of sodium bicarbonate is that, by altering urine PH, it can prevent certain drugs from being excreted, thereby making them undetectable. In this way, milkshakes serve as potential masking agents" (O.K. as recently as a month or so ago, I didn't know milkshakes were about lactic acid, but theres no way that altering the Ph of urine prevents the kidneys from cleaning the blood of drugs and sending them to the bladder. They may be masked but the only thing thats gonna keep them from being excreted is if the horse doesn't want to go.)

Whip Abuse is in this story too? I don't know, if my horse is third and looking kind of hangy, the jockey sure as hell better start tattooing him. Horses don't even show the results of broken bones for days afterwards and they suffer from the whip? That whip abuse thing is over rated.

I couldn't read the whole thing, but was getting hungry for a French steak about half way through it.

CtC