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Originally Posted by justindew
Regarding Dutrow's absence, are these witnesses under oath?
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No not usually.
It is not a court of law, just a committee hearing.
Therefore people are able to express their opinions, frequently without having any data or facts to back it up. I have personally watched as people have outright lied in committee hearings to push forth their agenda. The only recourse is to contact legislators and tell them a person has no facts to back up their testimony, sometimes they listen sometimes they don't.
Unfortunately I missed the hearing will have to wait for the archives, but this thread doesn't make it sound very good.
And as to the question of why this is so bad, there are many reasons.
First and foremost this hearing was brought about by Ed Whitfield who is on this committee, actually I personally suspect by his wife's urging, who is serving as the Vice Chairman of the KHRA and is also a senior VP and lead fundraiser for the HSUS. These 2 positions are diometrically opposed. Whether or not anyone wishes to believe it the HSUS and all other Animal
RIGHTS, not welfare groups, true agenda would be to abolish horse racing, then they would move on to jumps, dressage etc. They want all horses just wandering around with nothing to do, to them that is caring for the horses. I would also bet Ed Whitfield couldn't get any other committee to hear it, so he brought it to his own committee. This
IS how our political system works.
Additionally part of the problem is you have fat cat politicians hearing testimony on something most of them have no knowledge of anything about horse racing, or for that matter probably have never touched a race horse or seen the backside.
On top of that they have handpicked the witnesses who obviously have an agenda. I did not hear the testimony but by just looking at the witness list you have people that are totally anti-meds, Randy Moss as we know is anti-whip. It would be one thing if they truly had non-biased witnesses that were there to give factual, scientific information.
I could live with a ruling that the Fed mandates all state horse racing associations must join together and come up with a formula that is applicable in all states, therefore leaving it in the hands of the horsemen and track personel that deal with these issues on a day to day basis and actually understand the problems.
BUT that is not what is about to happen. Believe me I know how this works, I have sat and testified in many, albiet State, committes and task forces then watched as they voted on the bills many really didn't understand what they were voting for or the reprucussions.
On top of this what the heck is the ENERGY AND COMMERCE committee hearing about so called horse abuse when the dollar is out of control and gas prices are sky high. Just more political rehotric to appease the people with little to do but go help the poor horsies because the owners, trainers and handlers don't know how to treat them right.
It is a sham and just the usual politics in order to get our minds off the true causes that affect our country.