PETA Statement: HISA Report on 14 Horse Fatalities at Saratoga Race Course

For Immediate Release:
February 26, 2024

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo about the report just issued by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) regarding the 14 Thoroughbreds who died at Saratoga Race Course during its 2023 season. See video footage here.

Racing must be suspended at Saratoga until the track eliminates all causes of death. The HISA report makes it clear: Horses will continue to die if the racing industry continues to ignore every known cause. Racing needs to stop saying that there’s no single reason and acknowledge that trainers’ routine practices are dangerous and are leading to shattered bones. Failure to allow horses sufficient recovery time after racing, overuse of medication, officials’ failure to review training and layoff records, and refusal to use scanning technology to detect injury have all been implicated for donkey’s years. We need fewer studies and more action, and we need it now before another 14 horses die at this state-subsidized track.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.