PETA Statement re Jeff Blea Ruling

For Immediate Release:
February 3, 2022

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding Judge Nana Chin’s decision to uphold the veterinary license suspension of California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) Equine Medical Director Jeff Blea:

If the allegations against Jeff Blea are found to be true, horses were harmed. PETA will be asking the district attorney to investigate Blea for possible violations of anti-cruelty laws, particularly regarding his alleged administration of a powerful thyroid medication to multiple horses without examining them. Blea was once quoted as saying, “In our practice, I think if we had half a dozen horses a year that we put on thyroxine that’s probably too many. Hypothyroidism is a pretty rare metabolic disease in the horse.” Yet he is now alleged to have administered thyroxine to multiple horses well after the California Horse Racing Board tightened the rules on the medication, following the deaths in 2011 to 2013 of seven Bob Baffert–trained horses, all of whom had been given thyroxine. Ignoring veterinary regulations, racing rules, and the welfare of horses must not be tolerated.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.