Outrage continues over Cobb’s videoed racehorse whipping

Please see Take Action at end of post!

Dr. Bryan Langlois, Past President, Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association, in an open letter to the Editor of horseracing’s Paulick Report regarding the whipping abuse of a racehorse by Amber Cobb and caught on video, states in part:

I, like everyone else who has seen it, was utterly disgusted with not only the video depicting the actions of trainer Amber Cobb against one of her horses, but also the almost complete ignorance of the Delaware Racing Commission in reducing her suspension for those actions. How this industry continues to manage to shoot itself in the foot repeatedly is just mind boggling to me. Actions that are as heinous as those displayed by Ms. Cobb require only one reaction, and that is immediate revocation of her license to train horses anywhere in this industry (or any other equine industry for that matter).  Why it seems so hard for commissions to do the right thing in banning these bad actors for life is something I will never understand.

I am a veterinarian licensed in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. If a video surfaced of me committing those acts, I would not have my license suspended for two months or even two years. It would be gone permanently in a heartbeat, and I likely would not have the ability to obtain one in any other state in this country.

What occurred in that video is blatant animal cruelty (something I have been involved in assisting the prosecution of for the last 15 years). It can be looked upon as nothing less and should be dealt with accordingly by both law enforcement and the racing commissions. Sadly, that did not happen in the case of the decision of the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission.”

Please see Take Action at end of post.

Team Valor boycotts Delaware Park

Barry Irwin of Team Valor. “I’m not enjoying racing in America as much,” Irwin told England’s Racing Post in November, 2019. In May 2011 on national television moments after his colt Animal Kingdom won the Kentucky Derby, Irwin openly questioned the honesty of the trainers who send horses out to race every week at tracks around the United States. Image: Racing Post.

Chief executive officer Barry Irwin of Team Valor, who competes at major racing venues both in the U.S. and abroad, tweeted:—

Team Valor has informed the Delaware Racing Commission that it will no longer enter its horses to race at Delaware Park owing to the lessening of suspension of Amber Cobb from 2 years to 2 months on the charge of animal abuse.

— Team Valor (@TeamValor) September 3, 2021

That would be Delaware Park and Casino. At least one member of the racing fraternity took public action.

In the meantime, racehorse abuse and destruction goes on at an unrelenting pace. Cobb’s whipping and terrorizing of a racehorse is the tip of the iceberg of horseracing’s many horrors. Actions like hers go on day after day in horseracing barns around the U.S. Hers is not an anomaly or an isolated incident. It just happened to be recorded for the whole world to see.

Take Action

Dr. Bryan Langlois, DVM.

Dr. Langlois included this in his message:

Another thing I have learned over the years is the true power that we as the public can have in matters before a racing commission. I learned this after the intense pressure put on the PA Racing Commission by so many to get the license of the trainer of a horse named Silent Ruler permanently revoked after the horse was found in a state of severe pain and neglect from a non-attended to sesamoid fracture.

Therefore, I urge everyone who sees this letter to please write into or contact your state racing commission and politely but firmly urge them to not allow this cruelty to continue by revoking Ms. Cobb’s license to train horses in that state if she holds one and to not consider granting her one if she does not.

We hear all the time how commissions and those in the industry want to bring back integrity to the sport. The Delaware racing commission has failed miserably at this. It doesn’t mean that others must follow that lead.”

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Please answer his call. To find if you have a racing commission in your State please google the name of your State plus the words horse racing commission.

When you contact them, you can say something like, “I firmly urge you to see that Amber Cobb’s horse whipping cruelty does not go unpunished and recurs by revoking Cobb’s license to train horses in your state if she holds one and to not consider granting her one if she does not.”

Say what?

We thank Dr. Langlois for speaking publicly regarding the hideous Cobb horse whipping case. Puzzlingly, Langlois describes himself as, “A lifelong lover of animals, I have devoted my life to animals who need help the most, those in shelters. I also am a life long passionate fan of horse racing.”

“Life long passionate fan of horse racing.” Slow curtain. The end.

Video

In case you somehow missed seeing the video in question, here it is.

Via PeTA.

Tuesday’s Horse © Fund for Horses.