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Statement about Horse Racing by an
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Though many horses in Israel are well cared for, horse abuse is not uncommon. For horses who have been abused, there is no humane solution, since there are very few places that shelter horses unable to work as a result of injury or poor physical condition caused by consistently bad living conditions.
Introducing gambling on horse racing to Israel would most likely result in a very large number of horses having no place to go when they can no longer race. The number of riding schools is limited, ex-race horses are typically not temperamentally suited to be riding horses, and unlike other countries, we are not blessed with wide open fields where horses can roam and graze. The notion that all the surplus horses will find homes is not realistic.
To anyone who loves horses, it is obvious that they like to run, but it is human nature to push beyond reasonable limits, and experience all over the world shows this to be the case in the horse racing industry. Horses are often pushed beyond their capacity to win races, but the result is injuries to horses' physical structure, mainly to their tendons and bones, that are sometimes quite severe and sometimes incurable. It is also human nature to resort to measures that provide short-term benefits during races to improve horses' performance, but that cause damage in the long run. All this and more imply that the horse-racing industry can lend itself to abuse. This has been the case all over the world; there is no reason why it would not be the case in Israel.
Muna Shaheen, DVM Equine Veterinarian
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