Canada: Cancellation of funding program could mean 13,000 dead horses

by SCOTT STINSON

Horse racing on the turf at Woodbine in Canada. SportingLife image.

Cross-posted from the National Post

Amid all the numbers and charts and graphs contained in the 49-page interim report of the Horse Racing Industry Transition Panel, one figure jumps out: 13,000 dead horses.

It is, the report’s authors suggest, an accurate prediction of the number of racehorses that would have to be euthanized if the Ontario government continues with its plan to cancel a program that directs a portion of revenues from slot machines housed at horse tracks to the racing industry, without arranging a new source of public funds for horse racing.

I think for a majority of these horses you would be safe substituting “slaughtered” for “euthanized”. And just to remind folks, slaughter is death by violence. Slaughter is not not humane and it is not euthanasia. Euthanasia is death by peaceful means.

Now that is cleared that up, the article continues:

The report commissioned by the Liberal government makes clear that the Slots at Racetracks program has been hugely successful since its inception in 1998, providing the horse racing industry with a source of cash that sparked rapid growth. But with the tap set to turn off next April, the authors say the industry would collapse, which would not just mean lost jobs and wages — it would mean a lot of dead horses. The collapse doesn’t seem like a torqued prediction, either — any business that suddenly lost more than half of its revenue stream would effectively be taken out behind the barn and shot.

Death by gunshot can be considered euthanasia by someone who is trained specifically to end an animal’s life in this manner, such as a veterinarian. This does NOT include a production line scenario that exists, say, in a slaughter house. That set of circumstances radically changes the situation. Horses can only be stunned not killed outright if their meat is intended to enter the human food chain. This means that their heart must still be beating while they are bled out because toxins lethal to humans begin to set in immediately the blood ceases to circulate in the victim’s body.

The article also includes this quote:

“I think [13,000] is a conservative number, to be honest,” says Sue Leslie of the Ontario Horse Racing Industry Association, which has been lobbying without success to have the government reverse a decision that was announced, to great surprise, in March. “There’s a limited market for race horses, and though some could be sold to other jurisdictions or used for some other purpose, most would not be,” she said.

The concluding paragraphs state:

The transition panel is working toward a final report by the end of September. She still believes the industry, and the horses, can be saved.

“Hopefully, we get a solution,” Leslie says, “long before we have to start playing that card.”

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Note: The image used here was not filed with original report.