Kategorie: Animals

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From Doping to Corporate Welfare: These Shocking Investigations Blew the Lid Off New York Horse Racing Corruption

In an industry racked with drug abuse, injuries, and fatal breakdowns, it’s hardly surprising that dubious business practices run deep in horse racing. The Times Union has published several investigative pieces focused on New York racing, revealing what PETA has been saying all along: When it comes to the New York horse racing industry, corruption and cruelty go hand in hand.3 horses take off at the gate

Here are some shocking investigations that reveal the corruption behind New York’s horse racing industry:

Lack of Funding for Racetrack Investigations Enables Illegal Doping

Even while New York’s horse racing industry rakes in money from casino profits that should be going to New York residents, the state’s racetrack investigations are apparently grossly underfunded. A Times Union investigation found that for decades, this has allowed widespread illegal doping of horses in Standardbred and Thoroughbred racing.

“You have cops at malls. Here you have betting, and you have no police here. You have nobody investigating a $2 billion industry,” one racetrack investigator reportedly said.

The director of New York’s Equine Drug Testing and Research Laboratory even acknowledged that the laboratory can test for and identify only a fraction of the substances found in the thousands of samples taken from New York racehorses every year. With a lack of funding and resources, drug testing laboratories simply can’t keep up.

PETA Exposes Rampant Abuse of Performance-Enhancing Drugs and Worker Exploitation at Trainer’s New York Stable

A PETA investigaton found that at trainer Steve Asmussen’s New York stable, horses endured an aggressive daily regimen of performance-enhancing and pain-masking drugs and treatments to make them run faster. Among other things, the undercover investigator found that Lasix—a diuretic that can serve as a masking agent for other drugs and also dehydrates horses to make them lose weight and run faster—was injected into “basically all” of Asmussen’s horses who were being raced or timed in New York.

This same investigation revealed that Asmussen subjected employees to callous working conditions, including having to work long hours for little pay and often having to sleep in barns and tack rooms. In 2021, he settled a lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Labor, which alleged that he had failed to pay overtime to 170 employees, including grooms and hot walkers, at New York tracks.

New York Bankrolls Its Horse Racing Industry With Billions

Although horse racing across the country has seen financial decline over the years, a Times Union investigation found that in New York, the industry has been propped up by more than $2.9 billion in state taxpayer funds and government benefits since 2008. (That’s more than twice the money the state budgeted for its Department of Agriculture in the same time period and 13 times what it spent on veterans’ services.)

The report also noted that in 2008, the state used $159 million to clear New York Racing Association’s (NYRA) debts, bailing it out of bankruptcy.

Some New York racetracks are apparently dependent on handouts. In fact, one study found that without subsidies, eight tracks operated by the NYRA would likely shut down. Residents of New York state, not the 11 privately owned Thoroughbred and harness tracks, should be the recipients of subsidies.

Investigations Find Widespread Workplace Misconduct

The Times Union revealed that former New York State Gaming Commission employees who regulated horse racing reportedly gambled on the job, engaged in sexual harassment in the workplace, and withheld money from racing participants.

One report found that a Gaming Commission employee took apparent “retaliatory” steps against a woman staffer who came forward about inappropriate behavior from a former presiding judge at Vernon Downs.

On multiple occasions, a top Gaming Commission official reportedly made improper decisions beyond the scope of his job, including intervening in financial disputes by withholding race winnings. After the investigation concluded that the Gaming Commission should “reconsider” keeping the employee, he apparently kept his job for seven more months before leaving voluntarily.women protest horse racing in los angeles

Tioga Downs Exposed for Reportedly Dodging State Diversity Requirements

New York state law requires that state licensees like Tioga Downs must give at least 30% of contracted construction project work to minority- or women-owned businesses that are certified by the Empire State Development Corporation—but an investigation revealed that in two cases, Tioga Downs participated in fraudulent arrangements to use minority- or women-owned businesses as a front for other companies.

One of these companies—a minority-and-woman-owned business called Mil-Ray Food Co.—was reportedly being used as a pass-through entity to sell food from Sysco Corp. and Maines Paper and Food Service Inc. E-mails showed that Tioga Downs’ then–president and general manager Scott Freeman was reportedly aware of and encouraged the scheme, in which the racetrack improperly claimed $3 million in credits from the state.

Another minority-owned business, BSV Metal Finishers Inc., was allegedly being used as a broker for electrical goods from businesses owned by white men. These goods were purchased by the company that was overseeing electrical work at Tioga Downs’ new casino.

The New York Gaming Commission—which oversees gambling and horse racing licenses—did not conduct basic oversight of contracting at Tioga Downs to uncover these sketchy arrangements.

It’s Time to Stop Bailing Out the Horse Racing Industry—Take Action Now!

Public interest in horse racing is practically nil. A 2021 Marist Poll survey revealed that 91% of New Yorkers have no plans to visit a New York state racetrack and bet on horse racing, 5% plan to go once, and 1% plan to go twice.

The death toll at New York racetracks continues to climb (105 horses died in 2021 alone)—while privately-owned racetracks in the state collect $230 million in casino revenue each year. Take action to help end New York’s horse racing bailouts:

The post From Doping to Corporate Welfare: These Shocking Investigations Blew the Lid Off New York Horse Racing Corruption appeared first on PETA.

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Cruel Auction Prompts Super-Size Demand: ‘End Exotic Animal Suffering’

A pair of billboards just went up near the Cleveland County Agriculture & Livestock Exchange rallying the public to demand that the stockyard’s owners ban exotic-animal auctions. The billboards follow a PETA eyewitness investigation revealing that handlers at the Shelby Alternative Livestock Auction held at the stockyard last October were kicking, hitting, dragging, and otherwise abusing vulnerable animals.

Earlier this month, while PETA supporters were holding a protest to demand that the stockyard’s owners, Drs. Steven and Melissa Matthews of Vale Veterinary Hospital, stop the auction planned for March 18 and 19 from going forward (photos available here), that auction was canceled—but the veterinarians have yet to commit to banning exotic-animal auctions from their property permanently.

“Video from the last Shelby Alternative Livestock Auction showed workers chasing frightened bison, dangling a terrified coatimundi by the tail, and kicking and whipping sheep and goats,” says PETA Vice President of Evidence Analysis Dan Paden. “PETA is asking kind people to join us in speaking out against cruel exotic-animal auctions.”

In other incidents documented in October, workers hit animals with poles, dragged goats by their horns, and held a frantic, flailing wallaby upside down by the tail. One worker slammed a baby goat’s head into metal fencing, a zonkey struggled and cried out when his leg was caught in the door of a pen, and workers lifted animals—including nocturnal and prey species—into the air and jostled their cages, while auctioneers and sellers yelled.

That month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) cited the auction for accepting animals—namely, two hedgehogs, one camel, three prairie dogs, and three water buffaloes—for sale from unlicensed individuals. Colton Morris, the auction’s operator, was cited for selling two water buffaloes at the auction without a USDA license—and PETA is calling on the USDA to crack down on him for organizing the auction, too.

Video and photos from PETA’s investigation are available here and here.

PETA’s billboards are located on W. Sumter Street in Shelby (between N. Trade and N. Lafayette streets) and on I-85 near exit 10B toward Shelby.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way”—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.

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Los Angeles–Area Residents Sue Major Egg-Seller

Longtime resident of Los Angeles Jon Evans and longtime resident of Marina del Rey Kenny Kierman are plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against Vital Farms Inc.—a case in which PETA Foundation lawyers and co-counsel just won a precedent-setting victory when a motion to dismiss the suit was rejected by the court. They and fellow consumers allege that they were misled into buying the company’s eggs at a premium price because of its false claims that it treats hens ethically and humanely.

The lawsuit indicates that Evans and Kierman regularly purchased the Texas-based company’s eggs because they believed that Vital Farms provided hens with “freedom from undue pain and distress.” They would not have agreed to the company’s high prices—which are up to seven times higher than the price of ordinary store-bought eggs—had they known “the truth about Vital’s practices.” A Texas federal court judge has now found that they and the other plaintiffs raised valid legal claims when alleging that Vital Farms knowingly makes deceptive assertions about hens’ humane treatment.

Despite its assertions, the company does the following:

  • Obtains hens from hatcheries that kill all male chicks at birth and burn or cut off hens’ highly sensitive beaks to prevent fighting among stressed, severely crowded, confined birds
  • Claims that birds are in “pastures” when many spend most or all of their time indoors
  • Sends birds to slaughterhouses when they become less profitable

“Jon Evans and Kenny Kierman were deliberately misled into believing that Vital Farms treats animals with respect, when it sends them to slaughter and purchases from hatcheries that grind chicks up alive,” says PETA Foundation Director of Litigation Asher Smith. “PETA is working to ensure that this case puts a stop to and punishes dishonest marketing tactics that betray kind consumers.”

The nine plaintiffs—including individuals from New York City; Crosby, Texas; Warren, Michigan; and Cooper City, Florida—are also represented by Richard L. Stone of Blackner Stone & Associates and Jesse Weiss of Edmundson Shelton Weiss PLLC.

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

The post Los Angeles–Area Residents Sue Major Egg-Seller appeared first on PETA.

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Feds Fine Wilstem Wildlife Park Over ‘Critical’ Welfare Violations, Cruel Killing

The list of violations reads like something out of a Freddy Krueger movie: U.S. Department of Agriculture records just obtained by PETA show that the agency recently fined the notorious Wilstem Wildlife Park $8,000, including for dropping a llama into a hole and killing the animal by crushing his or her skull with an excavator bucket and for causing “unnecessary pain, discomfort and death” when workers attempting to recapture three escaped elands with a tranquilizer dart gun caused the panicked animals to scatter, one of whom broke her neck.

Other federal violations alleged in the fine include inadequate fencing that allowed a kangaroo to escape during a public feeding encounter, after which the animal remained on the lam for two days, and for having a hole in fencing big enough for a “dog-sized” animal to fit through.

“Roadside zoos like Wilstem Wildlife Park exist to exploit animals, and they’ll keep at it even when federal officials fine them for their wrongdoings, unless people stay away,” says PETA Foundation Associate Director for Captive Animal Law Enforcement Debbie Metzler. “PETA asks that the public shun this cruel roadside zoo, which doesn’t properly care for the suffering animals on its premises.”

The fine was prompted by a September 2020 inspection report that also included citations for failing to provide camels and goats with adequate shade and shelter, permitting a young child to climb the fencing and get face to face with camels without a staff member present, and failing to keep inventory records for multiple animals.

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.

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