Horse racing is just cruel | PennLive Letters

In 2023, 72 horses died on Pennsylvania racetracks and 891 since 2014. Horseracingwrongs.org documents that more than 2,000 horses die each year on U.S. racetracks, about six per day.

This figure does not account for horses that failed to qualify because they were not fast enough, were injured, as most are very young (or the rough equivalent of a kindergartener) and their bones are not fully developed. They die from cardiac arrest, pulmonary hemorrhage, blunt force head trauma, broken necks, severed spines, torn ligaments, shattered legs, and the list goes on.

“All of the horse’s organ systems (musculoskeletal, digestive, and neurological) can be severely affected by confinement. The concept of locking a 1,000-pound professional athlete in a 12-by-12-foot closet for 23-and-a-half hours a day is abusive and archaic.” – Dr. Kraig Kulikowski