They organize to prevent it while increasing the efforts of animal protectors to stop
Yolanda García does not hide her concern about the possibility that horse racing will come to an end and that her source of work at the Santa Anita Racetrack will be closed.
“I feel very bad. Six members of my family work here, two brothers, two brothers-in-law and a nephew, ”says Yolanda, who for 14 years has worked at the Santa Anita Racetrack located in the city of Arcadia in Los Angeles County.
Anti-animal abuse activists and organizations are fighting to stop horse racing across the country, not just in Santa Anita and California.
“Horse trainers and owners earn millions of dollars on the pain and suffering of animals. Horse racing is totally illegal because it is based on corruption, gambling and the abuse of animals”Says Ellen Ericksen, an activist against equine racing.
Horse racing at the Santa Anita Hippodrome has been around since the 1930s, but it has been in recent years that animal advocates have increased pressure not to allow it at all.
But for the thousands of workers who depend on racetrack jobs, these demands from animal rights defenders have hit them like a bomb.
“It is not true that we abuse horses. All workers love them. Nobody wants to hurt them”Says Yolanda who works in the security area of the Santa Anita Racetrack, but several years ago she worked as a horse walker.
“The truth would affect us a lot if they closed the Hippodrome. They offer us good jobs and we have a union. Where would we go? Those who want horse racing to end, do not think about how the economy is “.
Precise that they are more than 800 people who work at the Santa Anita Racetrack, 90% of them are Latino, and they handle more than 1,400 horses.
He says horse advocates have no idea how workers care for horses; and the love and devotion they dedicate to them. “Nobody wants to see them suffer.”
Jayro López used to work every summer at the Santa Anita Hippodrome walking the horses, but his father Dagoberto López has been a racehorse hairdresser for between 38 and 40 years. “I stopped working a few weeks ago after having a stroke.”
Like Yolanda she denies the accusations of animal rights defenders. “They are not true. We are always looking at how to take better care of them. They don’t want to see the truth. “
While every day animal protectors’ efforts to end horse racing across the country are increasing, racetrack workers are organizing to stop it.
Oscar de la Torre, the lead organizer for racehorse workers throughout Southern California, says that most racehorses have spent an average of 35 years caring for horses in stables.
“It is a 24-hour job that starts at four in the morning. Many workers sleep in the stables. Lis they feed them, they train them, they run them, they massage them ”.
He explains that these jobs are generally passed down from one generation to the next, and entire families work in the stables on equine racetracks.
“If the activists want the racetrack closed and the races ended, the workers are going to lose their jobs, their housing, their medical care. But they don’t care about the workers but the horses. Statewide there are 77,000 workers in this racing industry”.
And he emphasizes that animal advocates whom he calls extremists want racing to be banned, regardless of the consequences. “The ban would create a humanitarian crisis, as it would kill tens of thousands of jobs and put workers at economic risk in the midst of a global pandemic.”
Ellen Ericksen, who has been organizing protests against horse racing for 10 years, points out that she wants them to end up everywhere not just at the Santa Anita Racetrack.
“So far this year, 83 horses have died in California. In the Hipódromo Del Mar, 5; in the Golden Gate, 21; in Santa Anita, 16; San Luis Rey, 2; and in Los Alamitos, 39 ”, He says.
“Historically up to 2,000 horses die per year on the racetracks in the country.”
Eriksen explains that mistreatment occurs since he begins to train horses from an early age, exposing them to multiple fractures, bleeding in the lungs and heart attacks.
“The problem is that they put them to compete with broken legs or ankle, but they mask the suffering of the animal with an overdose of pain medications, and thus they put them to run”.
He accepts that they want horse racing to end because he considers it a very cruel industry that makes its profits from the exploitation of animals.
“If we care about the workers, but they can get other jobs like those who worked in the closed circuses have done.. They can be trained in other occupations Animals, on the other hand, cannot defend themselves from the abuse they are repeatedly subjected to in a corrupt entertainment and gaming business, ”he says.
In December, County Attorney Jackie Lacey conducted an investigation into horse deaths at the Santa Anita Racetrack, requested by the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which blamed trainers and veterinarians for medicating equines when injured and injured, then putting them back on track, making them vulnerable to breaking a bone.
But prosecutor Lacey found there was no criminal guilt as there was no evidence that trainers or vets knowingly put the injured horses on the track.
It is currently on Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk, the measureto SB 800 which will require veterinarians to produce a complete medical record on the horse that has participated or will participate in a horse race, at the request of virtually anyone who requests it.
Currently, veterinarians are prohibited from displaying such information.
Los Angeles Attorney Jackie Lacey welcomed the Legislature passing this measure that she co-sponsored to increase safety in horse racing, and that equines are prepared to race.
“This measure represents a step forward in efforts to ensure the health and safety of horses and their riders,” said Attorney General Lacey.
Last year, Senate Bill 469 passed, sponsored by prosecutor Lacey, authorizing the California Race Horse Board to suspend racing at any time when dangerous conditions exist.
Both pieces of legislation were among two dozen recommendations contained in a 17-page report by Attorney General Lacey on the horse deaths at the Santa Anita Racetrack issued in December.
