| I think a major problem is racing 3 year olds and younger. The United States is one of the few countries that race such young thoroughbreds. There was an interesting piece on our local news describing the immature skeletal structure of these young horses and the trend toward breeding huge chest/lung capacity on delicate leg structures.
My grandmother's mother is from Kentucky and her father from Tennessee...and prior to migrating to Texas, the family business was breeding and showing Tennessee Walkers. You want to read about some cruel and inhumane breeding techniques, just google that topic. Makes me shudder. I don't even want to know if our family farms participated in such terrible stuff.
The other industry that just breaks my heart is greyhound racing. What beautiful sweet dogs. If you ever want to 'save' a deserving animal (and if you don't have cats), consider adopting from greyhound rescue. |