CANOVANAS, Puerto Rico — For thoroughbred racehorses in Puerto Rico, success can be a matter of life and death. Many losers don’t make it off the racetrack grounds alive.
More than 400 horses, many in perfect health, are killed each year by lethal injection at a clinic tucked behind the Hipodromo Camarero racetrack, chief veterinarian Jose Garcia told The Associated Press after checking clinic log books going back seven years.
Unlike on the U.S. mainland, where many former racehorses are retrained for riding or sent to special refuges, the animals have few options in this U.S. Caribbean territory. Owners say caring for and feeding a losing racehorse is too expensive.
“If it doesn’t produce, after a while I give it away or I kill it,” said Arnoldo Maldonado, 60, a businessman who races about five horses a year. “It bothers me, but it has to be done because there is no money to pay for them … I’m not going to keep losing.”
The killings also bother veterinarians who carry them out.
While many horses are unsuitable for adoption because of injuries or bad tempers, far more could be rescued than the current few dozen a year, Garcia said.
The veterinarians at the racetrack clinic have an informal system of contacting farms and breeders when a healthy horse comes in to die. But so far there are no programs such as the U.S.-based Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, which rescues and advocates for horses coming off the track.
The killing of so many racehorses in Puerto Rico isn’t happening because they have suffered a serious injury, like Eight Belles, the filly euthanized after breaking both front ankles racing in the Kentucky Derby on May 3. Here, even when a second home is available, veterinarians say that some owners want losing horses executed anyway — some to save money, others to have revenge.
“You’ll get a few owners who get so upset, they just want the horse dead,” said veterinarian Shakyra Rosario.
She often asks trainers if they have extra space so she doesn’t have to kill a healthy horse, and there are Puerto Ricans such as trainer Berti Zequeira who make it their business to rescue the rejects.
Lionel Muller, senior vice president at Hipodromo Camarero, Puerto Rico’s only racetrack, said owners generally have the horses killed only as a last resort when they cannot find a suitable second home.
“Most of the horse owners really love the horses. You don’t want to get rid of a horse that way,” he said.
With a stable of about 1,300 horses, the flower-trimmed track on the north coast holds races five days a week. Tourists and other fans cheer from open-air grandstands and a skybox restaurant. About $210 million a year is bet at the Hipodromo and at off-track betting booths.
The U.S. horse racing industry also struggles with unwanted thoroughbreds. AP’s efforts to obtain figures were unsuccessful, but advocacy groups say sanctuaries created over the past two decades have dramatically cut the likelihood that a former racer will be executed.
“If you’re a thoroughbred and you’re not dangerous to humans, there’s a home out there for you,” said Gail Hirt, a Michigan-based board member of The Communication Alliance to Network Thoroughbred Ex-Racehorses.
Horses that don’t win in Puerto Rico quickly become liabilities for their owners. It costs about $750 a month in food and stable fees to keep a thoroughbred at the track, and many owners would rather spend on horses that still have a chance of winning.
Farms and ranches that could take retired horses often prefer lower-maintenance breeds such as the Paso Finos, bred locally since Spanish colonial times and prized for their smooth gait.
That often leaves euthanasia as the cheapest option. The clinic charges owners only about $20 for the chemicals, Garcia said.
The thoroughbreds, mostly imported from the United States, often begin racing before their third birthday. After a brief career on the track, they can live to 30 or older.
But veterinarians say they would rather see unwanted horses destroyed humanely than given away or sold to somebody who cannot afford to feed and care for them.
Some horses wind up fending for themselves. Emaciated thoroughbreds, marked by tattoos from the track, have been found among the “chongos”— stray, mixed-breed nags — chewing grass by the roads, according to Amigos de los Animales, an animal sanctuary.
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