Horse Racing - The Cruelty Behind the Glamour [View all]

[MoonRiver]

The horse racing industry advertises itself as “glamorous,” but in reality, exploitation, welfare violations, cruelty, and premature deaths are an inherent and unavoidable part of this industry based on greed.

FACTS:

The horse racing industry causes thousands of horses to be born only to be slaughtered or abandoned to an existence of neglect, starvation, and suffering. There are three reasons for this:
Very large numbers must be produced annually to generate a few fast ones to be selected to compete. Of the many thousands bred to race, very few make the grade. The rest must be disposed of.
During training or racing, injuries are common. Injured horses are also euthanized or sold from one owner to another into increasingly worse conditions.
When race horses have finished their career – usually at a very early age, before they are fully mature – they, too, must be disposed of. Their numbers exceed by far the number of humane retirement facilities.

https://savetheworldshorses.wordpress.com/horse-racing-the-cruelty-behind-the-glamour/

Edit: another link

It is known as 'the sport of kings', full of glamour, effort and thrilling competition. But few of the thoroughbred racehorses that gallop their elegant way around the racecourses of Britain every week are left to see out their days grazing in golden pastures.
For thousands of British thoroughbreds that are too old, too slow or not good enough jumpers, the end is brutal: a bullet through the temple or a metal bolt into the side of the brain. Then their carcasses are loaded on to freezer lorries and driven to France, where their flesh is sold as gourmet meat.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/oct/01/horseracing.sport