Congress wants to take a look at horse-racing
By Gina Spadafori
May 24, 2008
This could have been predicted. Be nice to think some reform will come out of it, but I’m still pretty much holding my breath on any change in in food imports and safety, so I certainly wouldn’t count on it. Especially from a Congress that did manage to slip a three-year “depreciation” tax break on racehorses into the farm bill. Too many powerful and rich people playing this game to count on any real reform, I’d say.
From the Louisville Courier-Journal:
First, it was steroids in baseball. Now Congress is turning its attention to the horse racing business.
Citing concerns that “leading officials in the sport” have failed to address longstanding concerns over the welfare of thoroughbred racehorses, a House panel has demanded that state racing commissions provide information on breakdowns, drug use and breeding.
Saying the public demise of Eight Belles in this year’s Kentucky Derby shows that the “thoroughbred breed has become increasingly fragile,” the leaders of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection say they want answers by June 2.
The panel expects to hold a hearing sometime next month on the state of horse racing in the United States, said Kristin Walker, press secretary to U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield of Kentucky, its ranking minority member. Whitfield and subcommittee Chairman Bobby Rush, D-Chicago, made their demands in a letter sent this week to the Lexington-based Association of Racing Commissioners International, which represents 44 jurisdictions.
They ask the organization to identify by name every trainer who has been sanctioned for medication infractions during the past five years and for a list of the nature and severity of the injuries of every horse over that period.
Here’s the rest.
A three-year depreciation would explain why these horses are raced so young. Don’t want to wait till they are older - there is no tax benefit to them then. And do I read right that the ranking minority member of this panel is from Kentucky? That sure sounds like a conflict of interest to me.
Comment by Mary — May 24, 2008 @ 2:42 pm
>That sure sounds like a conflict of interest to me.
I’m sure the member of Congress in question would see that as representing his constituency’s interests, not “conflict of interest.”
It is, after all, common and proper for them to advocate on behalf of the interests in their districts. I know in this day of lobbyists calling the shots, it’s kinda odd, but that’s how it’s supposed to run. It’s call “representative Democracy.”
Kentucky’s elected officials arguably should be protecting a multi-billion-dollar industry in their own state.
It’s the OTHER congressional representatives who should have challenged this pork-barrel outrage.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — May 24, 2008 @ 4:01 pm
I am sure it will be too little too late. I don’t mean to sound like a pessimist, but I don’t think congress will pass any legislation that will benefit the wellbeing of our country’s race horses.
Its such a shame the way we treat animals is only slightly worse then how we treat each other.
Comment by Hilary — May 26, 2008 @ 2:51 am