Kategorie: Animals

After learning that jockeys will ride at Ruidoso Downs this weekend despite being exposed—in a Washington Post article that drew from a PETA investigation—wearing electric shock devices and looking on as horses were injected with drugs, PETA sent a letter today to the New Mexico Racing Commission (NMRC) and track General Manager Ethan Linder, urging them to revoke the licenses of any jockeys who participate in unregulated races.

In its damning 10-month investigation, PETA documented jockeys Bryan Candanosa (the 2022 leading money winner), Alex Carrillo, Eduardo Nicasio, and Rodrigo Vallejo wearing electric shock devices at “bush tracks,” where gambling and horse fatalities are commonplace. All are scheduled to race at Ruidoso Downs this weekend in the trials for the $3 million All American Futurity.

New Mexico prohibits the possession of electric shock devices, and if these jockeys were caught with them at Ruidoso Downs, they would be subject to severe penalties. The NMRC has the authority to suspend or revoke a license if the licensee “has engaged in conduct unbecoming or detrimental to the best interests of racing.”

“Jockeys who care so little about horses that they would tape electric shock devices to their wrists have no place in sanctioned racing,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “The NMRC and Ruidoso Downs should cut them loose now, before more horses get hurt.”

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

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding last night’s arrest of Thoroughbred trainer Chad Brown for alleged domestic violence:

It appears that Thoroughbred trainer Chad Brown is a despicable, violent bully, whether the victims are horses, his employees, or his girlfriend. Three of the nine horses who have died at Saratoga Race Course so far this year were trained by him, and his appalling record of worker wage theft led to a U.S. Department of Labor investigation and a $1.6 million fine. Racing needs to boot out all unethical, violent abusers, and New Yorkers shouldn’t have to prop up the cruelty of this industry with $230 million in subsidies every year.

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.

PETA supporters have encased their feet in blocks of concrete and are blocking the driveway and drive-through at the Starbucks store at 3005 West End Ave. while wearing shirts emblazoned with messages such as “Not Your Mom, Not Your Milk.” The action is the latest salvo in the campaign—backed by Sir Paul McCartney and Succession star James Cromwell—calling on Starbucks to stop penalizing people who are concerned for cows, the environment, and their own health by charging extra for the plant-based milks it already agrees are better for the planet. The protest is being livestreamed on Facebook here.

“Starbucks’ punitive price hike on vegan milks harms cows, the planet, and customers who are lactose-intolerant—many of whom are people of color,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA has appealed to Starbucks to stop profiting from the plant-based milk upcharge, but so far, greed continues to define the company’s position.”

PETA supporters—including Cromwell—have superglued themselves to counters at Starbucks locations at the company’s Seattle headquarters, in New York’s Times Square, and in Chicago to protest the upcharge. McCartney has written to former and current Starbucks CEOs, asking them to drop the upcharge. Starbucks itself points out that the dairy industry is a top producer of the greenhouse gases that contribute to the climate catastrophe and encourages customers to choose plant-based milks—while continuing to charge more for them.

Cows used for dairy are forcibly inseminated (raped)—workers insert an arm into the cow’s rectum and a metal rod to deliver semen into her vagina—and their beloved calves are torn away from them so that the milk meant to nourish their babies can be used by humans. Once their bodies wear out after repeated pregnancies, they’re sent to slaughter.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat 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.