Boycotting the Derby

I refused to watch the Derby this weekend. Normally I do. This year I have no idea which horse won. I'm still a little curious though, and missed the tradition.

But, I'll keep up my boycott until Churchill Downs gets a new track.

Here's why they need it....

I got angry the other night I was watching the news and heard that on average two race horses are killed on race tracks around America -- mostly due to broken legs.

It's not that I didn't know horses die on the race track. But, what I didn't know was so many die regularly. Nor did I realize that they know how to eliminate a lot of deaths. Apparently there is a newer rubberized fill they use instead of dirt. The news said it is very expensive, but safer and makes the horses run faster on it because the track is easier on the horses.

The news said that the Kentucky Derby would rather keep killing horses than buck tradition. (Well, those weren't the exact words that they used, but that was the gist of it.)

It has occured to me that they news might not bring this up again because right now Barbaro's death is still making the media money. A year or two from now the draw will not be there.

Last year Pamela Anderson and PETA boycotted the Derby because of the KFC sponsorship. Admittedly, I'm getting all this out of the news sites like this one. Still... don't you think PETA should have considered the danger to the horses as part of their boycott?

Sucks to be a race horse.