The Horse Fund's Official Blog
SOURCE
TDN Magazine; May 2, 2013; p. 6 »
RELATED READING
https://horsefund.org/horse-racing-resources.php »
H.R.1754 (the Horseracing Integrity Act) is a shockingly bad bill for racehorses and will change nothing except put a handful of horse racing’s drug kings in charge of racehorse doping across the entire U.S. instead of simply their own backyard.
Imagine a scenario such as this, someone like the totally unscrupulous Bob Baffert, who ranked at the top of every doping violation list we ever saw published, help making and overseeing the rules on racehorse drugging. It’s criminally stupid, and would mean continued if not heightened suffering and death for America’s racehorses.
We were checking the cosponsor list of H.R.1754 and discovered some startling support for this bill. 29 cosponsors from the State of California.
It appears that these U.S. Representatives signed onto this bill because they were lobbied to do so. No one could have taken the time to read it. Or if they did, they are either unscrupulous or perhaps even paid highly to support it.
Here are the 29 California cosponsors of H.R.1754:
1. Rep. Bera, Ami [D-CA-7]
2. Rep. Brownley, Julia [D-CA-26]
3. Rep. Calvert, Ken [R-CA-42]
4. Rep. Carbajal, Salud O. [D-CA-24]
5. Rep. Cardenas, Tony [D-CA-29]*
6. Rep. Chu, Judy [D-CA-27]
7. Rep. Cisneros, Gilbert Ray, Jr. [D-CA-39]
8. Rep. Cook, Paul [R-CA-8]*
9. Rep. Correa, J. Luis [D-CA-46]
10. Rep. Cox, T J [D-CA-21]
11. Rep. Davis, Susan A. [D-CA-53]
12. Rep. Eshoo, Anna G. [D-CA-18]
13. Rep. Gomez, Jimmy [D-CA-34]
14. Rep. Harder, Josh [D-CA-10]
15. Rep. Hunter, Duncan D. [R-CA-50]
16. Rep. Khanna, Ro [D-CA-17]
17. Rep. Lee, Barbara [D-CA-13]
18. Rep. Lowenthal, Alan S. [D-CA-47]
19. Rep. Matsui, Doris O. [D-CA-6]
20. Rep. Napolitano, Grace F. [D-CA-32]
21. Rep. Panetta, Jimmy [D-CA-20]
22. Rep. Porter, Katie [D-CA-45]
23. Rep. Rouda, Harley [D-CA-48]
24. Rep. Roybal-Allard, Lucille [D-CA-40]
25. Rep. Schiff, Adam B. [D-CA-28]*
26. Rep. Sherman, Brad [D-CA-30]
27. Rep. Speier, Jackie [D-CA-14]
28. Rep. Swalwell, Eric [D-CA-15]
29. Rep. Thompson, Mike [D-CA-5]
* = Originating Cosponsors | Source »
You can see why we must employ lobbyists to educate legislators on the validity of equine related legislation supposedly aimed at helping horses when sometimes they do quite the opposite. There is absolutely nothing good about H.R.1754 for racehorses. Remember too that this is for all racehorses, not just Thoroughbreds.
If you are a California resident, please check the list above to see if your U.S. Representative is on it.
If they are:
Contact them via email at the link provided at https://www.house.gov/representatives. Ask them to remove their cosponsorship of H.R.1754 at their earliest opportunity.
Tell them this bill is being marketed by horse racing lobbyists as a move forward in bringing an end to racehorse doping, however it is anything but. It will be business as usual — doping, cheating and killing racehorses — but under a national umbrella instead of a patchwork of independent state laws.
This following statement sums it up. Send the paragraph below as the reasoning for your request to remove cosponsorship, along with your own thoughts and ideas:
Dr. Sheila Lyons, DVM, the founder and director of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, writing about H.R. 1754 (The Horse Racing Integrity Act), warns of the following.
“This proposed legislation ultimately leaves the details of drug regulation in the control of members of the horseracing industry despite the reality that following decades of promises to regulate drugs effectively, it has failed to do so.”
* * * * *
If you wish to give a fuller objection, we recommend sending the following from Dr. Lyons’ report which also contains the above quote:
Dr. Sheila Lyons, DVM, the founder and director of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, writing about H.R. 1754 (The Horse Racing Integrity Act), warns of the following.
The Horseracing Integrity Act of 2019 seems to directly accomplish only two things:
1) It will create uniform rules and regulations regarding the use of drugs in racehorses amongst the states through the creation of a national regulatory structure imposed through a newly created nonprofit entity; and,
2) It will eliminate the administration of drugs on race day.
Unfortunately, neither of these changes will directly impact the common abuse of drugs used to mask injury and or enhance performance. This proposed legislation ultimately leaves the details of drug regulation in the control of members of the horseracing industry despite the reality that following decades of promises to regulate drugs effectively, it has failed to do so.
* * * * *
AUGUST RECESS
Traditionally, the U.S. House of Representatives recesses for the month of August. This is a time when Representatives return to their constituencies. You may like to type something up and drop it by your Representative’s office local to you. Or call.
There will be a skeleton crew in their Washington D.C. offices.
OUTRAGED IN CALIFORNIA
We discussed the number and nature of the 29 cosponsors with California racehorse advocates this past Friday in a highly strung meeting. They had no idea until we brought it to their attention. They are shocked. They are outraged. And more determined than ever to pursue a Referendum next year banning horse racing in the State of California. The Governor still supports it. Whatever the case, they will win. You can bet on it!
NOT A CALIFORNIAN?
See who has cosponsored H.R.1754 by State. Is your U.S. Representative on it?
(1) If they are, contact them and ask them to immediately remove their cosponsorship and vote against this bill.
(2) If they are not on the list, contact them and tell them to oppose the Horseracing Integrity Act and vote against it. Step by step online instructions here on Tuesday’s Horse »
POPVOX
Even easier. With an email and password open up a free POPVOX account and weigh in and track legislation important to you. Search by bill number and take a stand. As quick and easy as that.
Check out our stand on active horse related legislation in Washington at The Horse Fund’s Stakeholders page on POPVOX.
HANDY LINKS
• House.gov home »
• Directory of Representatives »
• California Representatives »
• H.R.1754 Cosponsors by State »
Thank you everyone!
Well, what could possibly be next we ask, when it comes to horse racing, cheating and drugs?
We have been so busy working on racehorse doping and horse slaughter in America, we’ve had very little time for anything else, especially the international scene. Gene doping seems to be the latest scam.
The Racing Post reported the following back in April of this year.
The BHA [British Horseracing Authority] will spend an initial £1 million to investigate ways in which racing can protect itself from gene manipulation, a leading sports anti-doping conference was told last week.
The study will be conducted by the LGC laboratory in Newmarket, with scientists looking at a range of potential applications including attempts to improve performance, change breeding outcomes and speed recovery from raceday effort and even injury.
The Racing Post reported last October that the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities and the International Stud Book Committee had “agreed principles to combat the problem and a road map for adopting practical deterrents” as first steps to combating a problem which is viewed in human sport as the next frontier after blood doping.
The day after the 2018 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe the IFHA’s gene doping sub-committee chair, Dr Kunichi Kasano, warned the body’s annual conference in Paris that gene doping could “endanger the integrity of the sport and wagering, and will risk creating genetically modified thoroughbreds”. Read more at The Racing Post »
Bloody ‘ell as they say back home.
But what about this from 2017? America must be cheating this way too. They cheat doing everything else, from milkshakes to frog juice to shock wave therapy. The Horse.com reported on it in 2017.
Gene doping’s effects, good or bad, remain unclear. It might not affect performance and could have serious side effects.
Gene doping could be the hot new thing in horseracing. More specifically, the hot new bad thing. As pharmaceutical doping tests become more powerful and efficient, and as gene therapies advance, the black market of the horseracing industry is turning to gene doping. And that’s opening a whole new can of proteins for detection.
“Some genes that are the focus of gene therapy research for their therapeutic effects may also have a role in athletic performance, and this is where the concept of gene doping stems from,” said Tessa Wilkin, PhD, of the University of Sydney School of Veterinary Science and the National Measurement Institute Bioanalysis Group, both in Sydney, Australia.
By injecting certain genes directly into a horse, handlers might be able to influence performance, Wilkin said. However, scientists have not yet studied the effects—good or bad—of these injections. They might not affect performance, and they could cause severe side effects. It’s even possible the genes could filter through the bloodstream into the reproductive organs.
“This is one of the risks associated with gene doping—the injected gene could then be inherited with unknown effects on the foal,” she said. Read more at the Horse.com »
At the Asian Racing conference in 2018, Dr. Kanichi Kusano, JRA official veterinarian and chair of the ARF Drug Control Committee, as well as the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities Gene Doping Control Sub-Committee, provided a background with regards to gene doping and the role of the sub-committee, stated:
“Gene doping is just a trend of the times. In effect, it is the misuse of drugs—in this instance, the misuse of DNA,” Kusano said. “It just means that we need new experts and new instruments in order to deal with gene doping. Read more at the BloodHorse.com »
Good gawd. How disgusting.
Jane, oh Jane, will you come and explain all this to us please? (She always knows everything)
New BHA chair warns of ‘ethical challenge’ facing racing over welfare, The Racing Post, 2 July 2019, by Bill Barber.
States Annamarie Phelps, in her first public speech since taking over as BHA chair:
We are seeing the rise of the social consumer who really cares about what they buy and that it doesn’t harm the planet, or its people or its creatures.
Updated 5:48 pm EST
The last PMU (pregnant mare’s urine) facility operating in N. America — in Canada — is reportedly closing down. This has been a long time coming.
However, while that sounds like good news, HRT (hormone replacement therapy) drugs made from pregnant mare’s urine is on the rise in China where millions of women are already taking forms of it.
China is also where most of the world’s pregnant mare’s urine farms are.
Pregnant mares are repeatedly impregnated and milked for their urine in revolting conditions. The foals are immediately disposed of, often sent to local restaurants to be turned into “fresh off the hoof” dishes. Or, like the mares who can no longer get pregnant, are sent straight to a slaughterhouse. There are no rescues we know of for these horses anywhere in China.
Will you help with a donation?
We must educate the women of China about these drugs and where they come from. Sensitivity to animal cruelty is on the rise and trending big in all but the most remote areas of China.
We are excited to announce that we now have a strong set of enthusiastic volunteers in China to get the word out. And television has begun reporting what we are doing. We feel it is critical that we continue to build on what we have achieved.
Please make a donation today to help pay for ads, subway signs, billboards and other marketing materials, plus translations for the media. Support this vital work in China, and help continue our outreach to women across America too.
Thank you so much!
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and TUESDAY’S HORSE
