Two Sundays ago, I spent the entire afternoon watching coverage of the Kentucky Derby on NBC.

I gawked at the Hat Parade, laughed at Terrell Owens’ popcorn comments, quivered in anticipation as the horses approached the posts, and sat enthralled as Big Brown blew away the competition as the colt raced towards the finish line.

And yes, I cried when the filly, Eight Belles, fell after her second place finish and had to be euthanized.

Finding a scapegoat

In light of the Eight Belles tragedy, PETA had decided to start a media firestorm to convince people that horse racing is cruel.

Now, I’ll acknowledge that PETA, in the past, has done a lot of great things with regards to the treatment of animals. I just think that this time, they’ve gone too far.

For some inexplicable reason, one of the major points in PETA’s campaign has been to call for the suspension of Eight Belles’ jockey Gabriel Saez, as well as the banning of her trainer from ever training another horse.

How the unfortunate incident at Churchill Downs has anything to do with the jockey is beyond me, and I’m an avid horse racing fan. Yet, PETA continues to show its ignorance and stubbornness by trying to make its point through a scapegoat.

A perfect example of PETA’s inanity was demonstrated when spokesperson Nicole Matthews came on to Mike Tirico’s ESPN Radio show and refused to address Tirico’s questions about the jockey and instead decided to read off her talking points cue cards.

You can download the full show here, but here’s an excerpt:

Tirico: Did he do something that other jockeys haven’t done in the recent past?

Matthews: Well, horse racing is a dirty, greedy money game.

Tirico: That’s a big picture question, Nicole, and I understand that and we can get that for a brief moment in a minute. But come back to my point. Did he do something that somebody in the seventh race at the Derby didn’t do?

Matthews: Well, you know, thoroughbreds are raced on hard dirt surfaces, too young and too often and they’re whipped viciously as they come down the stretch.

Tirico: Let me try my question a third time. Did he do something that a jockey didn’t do in the sixth race at Churchill Downs Saturday. You can say you don’t know, it’s okay.

Matthews: [inaudible] horses is a standard practice, of course.

If PETA continues to be this ignorant and can not even respond to a rational question with regards to their complaints, they immediately lose any credibility with regards to anything they can say about horse racing.

Making room for change

The idiocy of PETA’s arguments (and yes, I did say idiocy, because it can not be described as anything else) aside, I will agree that the horse racing industry need to make a few changes in order to protect the health and well-being of the horses. Most people believe that banning whipping will be an excellent first step, but my major concerns do not revolve around the races themselves, but in breeding.

It is no secret that race horses are bred for size and speed; other factors such as strength and endurance are not priorities for horses running in high-stakes races that are usually just a few furlongs. This means that many horses are not bred for long careers, but instead for big finishes in lucrative races.

PETA should have targeted these kinds of breeding practices that are creating weaker (albeit faster) horses instead of trying to scapegoat a jockey that has done nothing wrong but do his job, and do it well. Even a small bit of research would have helped them realize that they’re taking the wrong approach; apparently PETA doesn’t value research as much as public demonstrations.

I love animals, but next time PETA opens their mouth to say anything about any issue, I’m tuning out. And it’s entirely their fault.