Create a campaign that creates awareness of the horrors of the thoroughbred horseracingindustry.
Behind the romanticized façade of thoroughbred horseracing is a world of injuries, drugabuse, gruesome breakdowns and slaughter. Every year, PETA receives countless callsfrom people within the multibillion-dollar horseracing industry who are in despair overthe fate of horses who are bred and raced to the grave, or sent on a terrifying journey atthe end of their short lives to a painful death in a foreign slaughterhouse.
Racehorses weigh more than 1,000 pounds and are supported by ankles the size of ahuman's. They are whipped and forced to run on tracks that are often made of hard-packed dirt at speeds of more than 30 miles per hour while carrying people on theirbacks. They are pumped full of drugs intended to mask pain, so that they keep runninglong after their stressed or injured bodies would tell them to stop.
When they stop winning races or become injured, usually when they’re still veryyoung - often not even physically mature yet - few racehorses are retired to pastures,because owners don't want to pay for a horse who doesn't bring in any money. Since thelast horse slaughterhouse in the U.S. closed several years ago, tens of thousands of horsesare now shipped to slaughterhouses in Canada, Mexico, or Japan, where they are turnedinto dog food and glue. Their flesh is then exported to countries such as France andJapan, where it is considered a delicacy.