Stop the government plan to conduct gambling on horse racing in Israel

The Agriculture Ministry wants to bring the gambling on horse racing industry to Israel, but hiding behind the glamorous image of this industry are cruelties, abuses, and welfare violations:

Thousands of horses are bred so a few fastest can be picked out to race. Most of the rest are sent to slaughter. At just 2 years old, when they are fastest, but before their bones have hardened, horses are trained and raced, resulting in catastrophic injuries. They are pushed beyond their limits with cruel whips and are drugged with everything from cocaine to cobra venom to enhance performance, allow them to race while injured, prevent bleeding in the lungs due to overexertion, control pain from chronic ulcers and more. New drug cocktails are invented faster than laboratories can develop tests to detect them.

By age 6, most are no longer fast enough and are sent to slaughter or sold from hand to hand in a downward spiral of abuse. The high rate of injuries and deaths, cruel whippings, widespread drugging and more recently led the U.S. Congress to hold hearings on the subject, but in every country where this industry exists, no laws or regulations have been able to stop the abuses. Israel will be no different.

Already, the Agriculture Ministry admitted that it plans to exempt race horses from the Animal Protection Law so they can be as cruel as they please and no one can do anything about it. Israel already has a problem of too many horses, many of whom are neglected or abused. Where will it put the hundreds more who are bred or imported, but who are not fast enough to race?

Will Israel build slaughterhouses where young, healthy horses are lined up and killed or enter the cruel live transport industry, sending horses to end up on European dinner plates just as other countries are ending these brutal practices? There are also environmental concerns. This industry requires enormous quantities of water, for example, while Israel suffers from water shortages.

At least 60,000 people in England alone are gambling addicts, their families made to suffer from the loss of income, drugs, crime, and other problems that accompany addictions. In the U.S., approximately 5 ½ million adults are considered problem or pathological gamblers. At greatest risk are young people. The potential is high for the involvement of organized crime, which already exists in Israel.

For detailed information about the abuses inherent in racing, see

www.chai-online.org/racing.htm

Hakol Chai needs your support to influence Knesset members to vote against allowing this terrible industry into the country! Please sign the petition opposing the establishment of the horse racing industry in Israel.