Katrina's+Page

This is Katrina's Page! I am against using horses for entertainment.

__**Essay **__

Horses. Beautiful. Strong. Majestic. And yet, these compelling, peaceful beasts are forced to face horrifying circumstances. These awful events include Horse Racing, Jumps Racing, Horse Diving, Horse Battling, Lion and Tiger Riding On Horse, Horse Soring and Drugging Horses. All of these, in some way, shape or form, injure or kill horses. That is one of the reasons that using horses for entertainment needs to stop. Another reason is all of these horrible factors of entertainment take the horses out of their natural environment. And finally, the aftermath of using horses for entertainment.

First of all, using horses for entertainment injures or kills the horses. For example, when horses are racing, they may break a leg, and if ever this happens they are put down by being shot in the head. In 2005, a study was done by the United States Department of Agriculture. They found that the leading cause of horse deaths is old age and the second is injuries. 87% of fatal injuries are fractures to the bones. In Britain alone there has been 840 horse deaths in 1915 days. And that’s only race horses! We need to put a stop to this!

Another reason is that the horses are taken out of their natural environment to perform all of these ‘entertaining’ feats. In the wild, would horses be forced to run in circles with a lion or tiger on their backs? No. Horses are not drugged when they are owned just for fun riding. In Horse Diving, the horses involuntarily jump off of a platform 60 feet up into water. That is not natural.

Finally, the aftermath of using horses for entertainment. It is horrendous what people will do to ‘useless’ horses. Some owners will leave a horse that is no longer of use to them in a Cooley to die. A Cooley is a dirt pit with no food or water. The horses can not get out because of the depth of the pit. Because of this the horse will die of dehydration. Other horses are shot in the head. Also, some horses are shipped to the slaughter house to be killed for dog food because their owner sees them as worthless. Lastly, when two stallions fight in horse battling, many of the stallions drop dead from exhaustion.

Now some people might say, “What about the Musical Ride?” Well, that is one okay way to use horses for entertainment. The horses are owned by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or the RCMP. The RCMP treats it’s horses well and the horses enjoy performing. I believe that the Musical Ride could continue because nothing horrific happens to these horses. But the rest of these awful events need to stop. The horses that are forced to perform are abused and mistreated.

Again, using horses for entertainment needs to be stopped. It injures and kills horses, it takes horses out of their natural environment and the aftermath of using horses for entertainment is horrifying. Help the horses by spreading awareness about their suffering.