TDN OP-ED: Jerry Brown on missing Lasix discussion point

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by cmorioles

I believe it helps, but I also believe it gives an edge. If a drug is allowed that helps some horses run faster, but others can't have it, how is that fair? We see where this has led...they all get it now. That is not good.

I have to say, two years ago I was in the anti-Lasix contingent, but I was persuaded by reading this board to change my position (it was actually Riot, and her accounts of other methods used in pre-Lasix days that convinced me. I thought Lasix was cruel because of the dehydrating effect, when, in fact, that's what actually helps protect the lungs). I think people miss the point of Lasix, which is that it's not a therapeutic drug; it's a preventative drug. It's meant to reduce the chances of a horse having an EIPH episode. Since there's no way to tell if a horse is going to bleed, better to administer it in case.

To me, Lasix is to racehorses as vaccines are to people. It's not perfect, it doesn't work in 100 percent of recipients, but it's the best option we have. And no, not every horse is going to have an EIPH episode, just as not every unvaccinated person is going to get chicken pox. And the majority of diseases we vaccinate kids against aren't usually fatal. But they can be, just as EIPH can be, and why take the risk of a horse dropping dead from EIPH in the middle of a race when there's a cheap and easy way of reducing the chance that will happen? We can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

I think we also dance around the issue that when we race horses, we are pushing them past what they evolved to do. And that's the point of athletics- challenging the body to its physical limit. But we get weird about it when it's animals- we fret about consent, and start to ask if what we do is cruelty (never mind that it's just about impossible to get a 1000 pound animal to do something it doesn't want to do). And that's the really hard part of the argument- if you say that really, most horses in hard athletic work are going to bleed in the lungs, even if only slightly, then the question we have to ask is, is it right to be racing them at all?

Of course, I think it's fine to train animals in athletic endeavors, but I think we have a responsibility to do the best we can to protect their bodies against the inevitable damage athletic careers will do. And I also think it's okay for trainers to make the decision not to use Lasix, if they feel it's in the best interests of their horse's health (like when Larry Jones felt Havre de Grace was having a bad reaction to it. Perfect, good, enemies and all that).