Yahoo Sports has a link to a story regarding Eight Belles and PETA. Obviously, an animal died so PETA is upset.
You can read the article there. But I’d like to point out a couple of the more ridiculous statements.
“the filly was ‘doubtlessly injured before the finish’ ”
Really PETA? Really? Lets check the results shall we.
1. Big Brown
2. Eight Belles
And thats all the farther we need to look. I’m not a horse racing expert, but I know a little bit about athletes in general. And I know enough to know, that a horse with two broken ankles is NOT finishing a race. Let alone, finishing SECOND…in the KENTUCKY DERBY! You don’t finish second in the Kentucky Derby unless you’re a super horse and you don’t finish second in the Kentucky Derby with two broken ankles unless there are only two horses in the race. And since there were 20 horses in the race this weekend, I think we can “sanely” rule out the fact the horse was injured during the race.
“What we really want to know, did he feel anything along the way?” PETA spokeswoman Kathy Guillermo said. “If he didn’t then we can probably blame the fact that they’re allowed to whip the horses mercilessly.”
Again, I’m not an expert. But I have a little history with anatomy and things of that nature. And I’m pretty sure getting whipped in the behind isn’t going to cause both front ankles to break. I’m all for a test though. I’ll bring a horse whip over to your house. Whip you in the behind and see how long it takes for your ankle to break. And I know what you’re going to say, “I won’t be carrying a person on my back.” And you’re right, I won’t be putting a person on your back. I will however put the same ratio of weight on. Horses are, what? 1000 lbs? I’m not sure. But I know Eight Belles was carrying 121lbs during the race. So roughly a tenth of her weight. I don’t know how much you weigh, but I’m assuming it’ll be somewhere between 10-20 lbs on your back. We’ll run you around and see how long I can whip you until you break an ankle. And when you do break an ankle, we’ll have a better feel for whether it was because you stepped wrong, or because I was whipping you.
Oh wait, we already know it is because I’ll be whipping you. How silly of me.
Second problem with your theory about the whipping. I’ve already shown that the horse wasn’t injured when it crossed the finish line. Now again, I’m not horse racing expert, but I’m pretty sure they stop whipping the horses when they cross the finish line. So really he hadn’t whipped the horse in a 1/4 mile when it broke it’s ankles.
I’m not saying this isn’t a sad day and a borderline tragedy. I’m saying you’re idiots for blaming the jockey.
