PETA has had enough of the horse racing deaths and Bob Baffert.
“Pimlico should have followed Churchill Downs’ example and barred Bob Baffert from the track,” PETA said in a statement to The Post. “Baffert has been implicated in drugging scandals, the deaths of seven horses who collapsed in California, and at least 75 horses in his care have died.”
On Saturday, Baffert’s horse Havnameltdown was euthanized on the track of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico after suffering a severe ankle injury hours before the race.
Havnameltdown was racing toward the front of the pack before stumbling around at turn and throwing jockey Luis Saez off the horse.
The horse continued running around the track in clear distress before being euthanized.
“The tragic death of Havnameltdown is the latest in a long line of fatalities,” PETA continued in their statement. “The racing industry must kick out the bad guys, or it will have blood on its hands as well as blood on its tracks.”
PETA – which stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals – has a motto that reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way.”
“We never had an issue with him (Havnameltdown),” Baffert said after his horse was put down. “We are so careful with all these horses, and it still happens. It is something that is disheartening. … There is nothing worse than coming back, and the stall is empty. He is a nice horse. He could not have been doing any better. It’s sickening. I am in shock.”
The animal rights group has been critical of the ethical practices of horse racing since eight horses died at the Kentucky Derby.
Baffert’s horse, National Treasure, would end up winning the 2023 Preakness Stakes in a small field of just seven horses on Saturday.
But the mounting deaths on the horse racing circuit have been the resounding story as the outcry for reforms grow louder.
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