This petition is to ask the top owners in the horse racing industry to please stand strong together and demand that the industry in which they participate in to please stop allowing the athletes in this sport from going to slaughter. We are asking them to please form a coalition with one another and demand that this change is made or to walk away from a sport where horses are killed each and everyday.

Last year as I sat and watched Marylou Whitney receive the Award Of Merit at the Eclipse Awards I soon realized as a horse racing fan that what horse advocates as myself have been fighting for is much bigger than we could ever have imagined. It will take the racing industry and people like Marylou Whitney who are involved in this industry to stand up for what is right. The horses in this sport must be recognized as athletes and not just animals or a commodity. There must not be even ONE more horse taken to slaughter or we have failed not only the horses but ourselves and all of those that love this sport.

There are alternatives to slaughter and they MUST be met. Second careers for those that are healthy enough and euthanasia for those that are not. More and more top owners in this industry have started to speak out against the situation that horses are placed in when their careers are over. We should be asking them why they would want to be part of a sport that allows this to go on? These cries and demands can not be ignored any longer.

The racing industry only cares about the top owners that keep this sport strong and alive. The top owners can no longer hide behind the fact that they take care of and make sure their horses are not put in these situations. They are the ones that are responsible when their horses fall into lower level tracks and are sent to slaughter. They are the ones that are responsible when ANY horse that is sent to slaughter. Without the top owners in this industry, the owners that do send horses off every single day would not even exist.

Big talk about programs and surrender stalls at tracks simply don’t get the results needed when horse welfare advocates continue to find horses dumped and on the way to slaughter day after day. The trainer claiming the horse was turned over to a person that he or she thought would give the horse a good home seems to be the number one way to get out of responsibility for the fact that the horse is sent to slaughter and processed for human consumption and sent to other countries. This is NOT acceptable.

What will it take for this situation to be fixed? How many more will die an unimaginable death? Horse slaughter is an ultimate betrayal of those who so trust and love us. Bred over the centuries for speed and strength, they are highly intelligent and sensitive horses who bond quickly to humans. It is this intelligence and bonding that makes them great race horses, but that bond is betrayed on the slaughterhouse floor.

I do still pray and have hope that change is on the way. I beg you to find solutions and reach out to those that can make them happen. I have talked to several owners on this list below that have agreed with me 100% but yet we still wait and in the meantime, the athletes of this sport are disposed of as if they were trash.

We are asking for everyone to sign this petition and support this cause. . In signing this petition, you will be asking that the top owners in the horse racing industry demand the changes from the racing industry to start saving the lives of the athletes involved and that slaughter for them to NOT be an option. If these changes can not be accomplished then we are asking them to walk away for a sport that treats these athletes in a way that they do not approve of.