Nice avatar 
I just saw Steve Crist's editorial from June 13. I think he's nailed it.
http://www.drf.com/drfNewsArticle.do?NID=95470
The dangerously scary part, that makes me slightly sick to my stomach when I consider that it may come true:
Quote:
The most dangerous thing about these hearings is that they open the door to far more pernicious mandates than a ban on a non-essential drug. Rep. Ed Whitfield, Republican of Kentucky, the ranking subcommittee member and driving force behind the hearings, has reached out to racing officials and journalists to gather information. He is married to Connie Harriman-Whitfield, the vice chair of the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority and a senior vice president of the Humane Society of the United States, which has launched a petition drive to ban all racing of 2-year-olds.
"These horses must start racing at the tender age of two years, and that's well before their skeletal systems are sturdy enough to endure the pounding from the rigors of the race track," said Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive officer of the Humane Society.
That's the sort of sentiment about tender baby horses that sounds sweet and noble until you consider that it is dangerously at odds with veterinary consensus and common sense. Research indicates that horses who race as 2-year-olds, subjecting those developing skeletal systems to beneficially formative stress, break down less often than horses who do not race until they are older. Yet Pacelle advocates no racing until 3 and making the Triple Crown a series for 4-year-olds.
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"Have the clean racing people run any ads explaining that giving a horse a Starbucks and a chocolate poppyseed muffin for breakfast would likely result in a ten year suspension for the trainer?" - Dr. Andrew Roberts
Last edited by Riot : 06-17-2008 at 11:56 PM.
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