Barbaro's Bones Disintigrated Because Of Dangerous Drugs

Elaine Meinel Supkis

The dead race horse, Barbaro, was killed by drugs. Lasix is a human medication that racing moguls inject into healthy horses in order to make them lose water fast. This drug also leeches out potasium and other minerals we use to keep our bones healthy. So no we have an epidemic of young horses shattering their legs.

Buried at the very end of this NYT article about the differences between European and American racing is this startling revelation:

By GINA RARICK
Published: February 4, 2007

There’s another big difference between the United States and much of the rest of the racing world: medication. Horses racing in America are allowed to be injected with various drugs on race day, the most common being Lasix, a powerful diuretic, and phenylbutazone, an anti-inflammatory medication. Many trainers use whatever medications are permitted whether or not they believe a horse needs it. If they don’t, the thinking goes, they will be giving an advantage to a competitor.

Brian Stewart, head of veterinary regulation for the Hong Kong Jockey Club, said that while it was impossible to scientifically link drugs to injuries, “we believe medication adds a risk factor, not only to injury, but to inconsistent racing performance.”

Hong Kong has a zero-tolerance policy on any medication in a horse’s system on race day.

Indeed. I recall very few instances of horses suddenly disintigrating on the race track until the last 15 years. It is now epidemic. It isn't old race horses doing this, it is very young ones. The main thing is, drugging horses or athletes is, to me, a criminal act: the drugging of a young horse in order to ride it deliberately to death, was clothed by the media and by hysterical, childish young (mostly) girls into this totally fake story of a brave little horse that incidentally ran itself into the ground in a heroic attempt at winning a race for its masters and owners.

Aside from the obvious connection to slavery, this dovetails with the activities of our 'allies' in the Gulf states who kidnap or buy little boys who are totally, in every regard, slaves, and then use them as jockeys who are injured, starved, drugged and killed. This made virtually zero news in America even as our media yelled nonstop about Darfur. The European press made a big deal about this slavery and forced our despotic allies to stop the practice just only a month ago.

Being a cruel Roman-style empire, we really don't care about other humans. Despite fighting a Civil War over the issue of slavery, the whole nation settled down to mistreating and abusing the children of the freed slaves and it took many years and a lot of very brave people to bring a tiny bit of justice for them.

The attitude that slaves love their masters and will put their lives in danger for the pleasure of their masters and racing is all about pleasure akin to sex, is part and parcel of the story-telling of empires. So the media conned little girls into crying real tears for a horse whose owners murdered it by injecting a potent and utterly dangerous drug into the poor horse to give it diahrea.

Indeed, drugged, abused horses win more races than ones that are treated fairly and honestly.

Hinchcliff 's team analysed the race records of 22,589 thoroughbreds, the researchers found that 74 percent (16,761) of the horses were given furosemide prior to a race. These horses raced faster, were 1.4 times more likely to win a race, 1.2 times more likely to finish in the top three and earned an average of $416.00 more than the horses not receiving the drug. While 85 percent of the horses in the study had received furosemide at some point in their lives, about 74 percent of thoroughbreds are likely to be running on the drug during a race, Gross said.

The trade name for furosemide is Lasix and it is according to one team member, "frequently used by humans for its diuretic effects" (the editor wonders if this may be an oblique reference to jockeys)? In any case the diuretic effect may cause enhanced racing performance, and other studies found that horses on furosemide lost about 20 pounds of their pre-race body weight through urination. And if weight can affect performance, a horse that's lost 20 pounds would theoretically have a racing advantage.

OK. What happens when one is flushed quickly of all nutrients? First, this damages the body which is why creatures can and do die from germs that cause diuretic effects. Like Cholera, just for example. Many human organizations forbid the use of a long list of drugs on athletes because they have bad side effects. And if they give a person 'that winning edge' this forces everyone to follow the same practices which is why steroids, for example, are forbidden.

Here is the standard cautions for Lasix:

Brand Name: Lasix
Generic Name: furosemide
FDA Drug Classification: loop diuretic

Action: Diuretics are given to help reduce the amount of fluid (water) in the body. They work by acting on the kidneys to increase the amount of urine passed.

Adverse Effects: -Increased loss of potassium from the body. Increase foods with high potassium content such as bananas or citrus fruits (or juices).
-Dizziness, lightheadedness or fainting may occur.

There it is, in a nutshell: the horses flush out important minerals and their bones get weaker and weaker and you can bet, the trainers and slave owners of these beasts pump that drug into them during the entire Triple Crown mess. This is probably why there has not been a Triple Crown winner since the slave owners who menace these poor horses voted to allow drugging. It isn't just Lasix, they use steroids off-season as well as a galaxy of performance drugs!

The number of damaged race horses in America is an epidemic today.

Around 800 racehorses die each year from fatal injuries suffered on US racetracks. An additional number of approximately 3,566 sustain injuries so bad that they cannot finish their races. Several breeding and horse handling abuses contribute to the great risk of death and injury that horses face.

Breeders often race horses as young as two. These horses lack fully developed bone structure, and are more likely to suffer injury.

We recently had a baseball scandal whereby the top players were forced to admit they cheated and used drugs to enhance their abilities. They did this dangerous practice despite knowing the hazards. There used to be this bizarre game show (I was asked to participate in it long ago but turned them down) called 'American Gladiators'. The show had a team of two men and two women who looked like escapees from the East German swim team. People were supposed to duel with them but the show's team nearly always won simply because they were swilled in steroids.

Then things fell apart. Murders and suicides shut down that horrible, abusive show. Too late for the poor women involved. Communist nations abused drugs in order to win. Race horse owners abuse drugs and kill their horses because winning makes them rich, especially with the breeding fees afterwards. Professional athletes abuse drugs seeking victory no matter what. Football players are given a host of drugs because they badly abuse their bodies and a fair number of them if not most, die younger than they might have if they had a less dangerous profession.

Money and power lie at the root of this drug abuse. The Olypmic Committee has tried to prevent this from happening to the point of taking unannounced urine and blood samples off-season to stop the rampant abuse of steroids in training. The fact that race horse owners give those high-strung horses steroids is horrifying. Angry horses are very dangerous and more than one trainer, even famous ones, has been killed by raging, out of control horses on steriods.

The US military and DARPA researchers strive to develop a drug that could act like steroids and speed all at once and allow soldiers to run, fight, be aggressive and so on for hours on end. Of course, this kills them and drives them insane. Which is why, each time, this has to be discontinued. The natural limits of our endurance have to be respected. If someone drives themselves past that point on their own volition, so be it. But forcing people to do this is dead wrong.

Now on to the business of capturing Killer Whales and making them perform tricks in tourist traps...

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Comments

[blues]

The short-term symptoms of potassium depletion are profound dizziness, confusion, disorganization, mutism, and eventual heart failure. People who lack potassium tend to fall down. An overdose of potassium can also cause many of these symptoms. Diuretics are a likely cause of calcium depletion, as well.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Correct. Tonight, there is a big racing scandal here in NY because of the use of drugs on race horses.

[arabiangal]

A friend of mine has a TB mare that was raced when younger. She got her as a rescue (another whole problem within the industry!). This mare is 12 yrs old and the sweetest thing on 4 legs. She barrels a bit, jumps a bit, has been locally in the showring and is the love of my friend's life...one she thought to have for a whole lot longer time.

We took her down the the university for further testing after initial liver test results were greatly elevated. The owner was worried the mare had just lost about 20 pds. After doing a liver biopsy, it's been determined the mare has cirrosis of the liver...due to steriods and testosterone given to her while racing. The vets said they see it often. Mares will show in heat to this mare even now, years later.

Anyway, she's got around 4 months to live, give or take according to the vets.. It is just terrible since she really doesn't even appear sick as of yet. She's eating like a horse *G* and is as sweet as ever even though her owner is a wreck...
How many other times has this been repeated and will do so in the future? :(

If anyone knows of any good links for this problem and for alternative meds having to do with this please email me. Please label it well as I receive tons of spam mail too.

Thank You Elaine for this article. My friend mentioned this type problem with Barbaro even as he was recouping.
Joyce

[Teri Shaffer]

Dear Elaine -

You are right on concerning horses being drugged. It is totally unfair to the horse and certainly must be considered as an advantage in the outcome of the race. All must be drug free to get the true winner.

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