Readers React: Another horse died — and it will keep happening until horse racing is banned

To the editor: What do you think it feels like to break both your legs being raced or even trained to death? The racehorse Princess Lili B broke her front legs at Santa Anita Park on Thursday. She was overraced and probably overdrugged and overwhipped.

This happens at racetracks all over the world. These young horses are already injured before they are trained and raced following prior injuries not limited to stress fractures that no one knows about until the “fatal” event happens. This is not an accident. This is neglect and animal abuse.

These horses are overmedicated so they can race harder and faster at the hands of the jockeys who will whip them endlessly. Horse racing is not a sport. It is another primitive form of entertainment for the humans who bet on the animals for profit and greed.

It is time to abolish this cruel form of entertainment and make it illegal just like dogfighting and cockfighting.

Ellen Ericksen, San Diego

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To the editor: Am I oversensitive or what?

Twenty-two horses have died at Santa Anita since December, and the officials at the racetrack call it “beyond horrible.” But if only half that number had perished, this would not have been a story and only a few of us would have even known that there was an “acceptable” level of carnage.

If Santa Anita Park can determine what’s causing the exceptionally high rate of loss and we return to the norm, know that hundreds of horses across the country will still be losing their lives yearly for the enjoyment of racing patrons. That should not sit well with anyone who has become incensed by this current enlightenment.

Ron Garber, Duarte

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