MONDAY, MAY 22, 2006
Tuesday Edition: Horse-Injury Lessons
The
injury of Barbaro at the
Preakness Stakes last weekend will, no doubt, focus some attention on racehorse injuries more generally. The
San Antonio (Texas) Express-News
ran a story about race-track injuries and some photos of a fatally injured horse named Miss
Pretty Promises on Sunday. The pictures, in particular,
disturbed some of the paper's readers. (Warning: The following link includes those photos.)
The story says:
Miss Pretty Promises is one of hundreds of racehorses in Texas that lose[s] a life-or-death gamble the public seldom sees.
At
the state's five licensed tracks, [Dr. Stewart] Marsh and other veterinarians with
the Texas Racing Commission have euthanized or documented the deaths of
300 horses in the past five years, usually after the animals broke
ankles, legs or even spinal cords during races, according to the
agency's database of horse injuries obtained by the San Antonio
Express-News.
Vets
who scratched injured horses from races and euthanized the grievously
injured compiled the database, which never has been analyzed by
outsiders.
While thousands of horses compete safely in Texas, the records
reveal an ugly side to a moribund industry struggling to fill empty
seats.
Even elite horses are at risk. At the Preakness Stakes on Saturday
in Baltimore, favored thoroughbred Barbaro took a bad step at the
beginning of the race and fractured his right hind ankle. By 7:30 p.m., Barbaro was being taken to Pennsylvania for an operation vets hoped would save his life, according to The Washington Post.
The injuries can be just as devastating in the lower-stakes world of Texas
racing, far from the worldwide spectacle of wealthy owners sipping mint
juleps at the Kentucky Derby. Many trainers and owners have concluded
the risk isn't worth the reward, and are fleeing Texas for richer purses in other states.
As
attendance in Texas has dropped -- from 1.6 million patrons at live
races in 2000 to 1.2 million last year -- purses have fallen as well.
Tony Lostracco, a horse owner from Weimar, said declining purses
encourage owners to train and race horses at a younger age to make
their investment pay off.
"They
want to push these little babies," said Lostracco, whose quarter horse,
Doctor Passmore, competed at Retama on opening night. "If you push
horses before they're ready, they will break down."
But beginning in 2003, injury rates began falling in Texas. A
possible explanation is that regulators reduced the number of race days
to ease the burden on the animals.
Speaking
at an August 2001 racing commission board meeting, Mike Burleson,
then-deputy director of racing, said vets were finding evidence that
horses were being over-raced.
"We're
seeing more tired, sore horses that are possibly increasingly
susceptible to injury," Burleson told racing commissioners. "Therefore,
our conclusion is that a slight decrease in racing dates will give
these horses an opportunity to rest."
Five years ago, about 15 horses per 1,000 were killed or seriously
injured in Texas. Last year, that rate had dropped by nearly half.
Besides
the deaths, vets documented 2,000 scrapes and bruises, and 550 pulled
tendons, broken bones and other serious injuries that weren't
immediately life-threatening.
Here are some questions, followed by links to answers, about horses and leg injuries:
In California alone, another study says
[downloadable document], "Musculoskeletal injuries were responsible for
77 percent of 946 deaths in California racehorses from
1997-1999."
If that is right, then there were, on average, more than 300 deaths per year in California during that period of time.
An Australian advocacy group, Animal Liberation Inc., notes two U.S. reports that state that there are generally between 1.4 and 1.7 fatal injuries per 1,000 race entrants.
In 1997, a paper [PDF] issued by the American Association of Equine Practitioners reported study
results from several states and countries, all showing essentially the
same one-in-1,000 death rate -- give or take a tenth of a . The exception was Japan,
where the rate turned out to be about 3 in every 1,000. The higher rate, though might have something
to do with Japan's injury-reporting system being more thorough
than its U.S. counterpart.
Another AAEP study from 1997 noted that the trainers who had the most wins on the track also had the lowest rate of injured horses.
An animal-rights group, In Defense of Animals, has some figures but does not cite a source -- so who knows if they are accurate.
Prom Proposals
This one is new to me. The San Diego Union-Tribune
says the ritual of boys asking girls to proms has taken on a whole new
twist. Now, prom invitations are more like elaborate marriage
proposals. And, the paper says, it is a national fad/trend:
There's whole skits involving multiple students and teachers with
elaborately set-up plots," said Scott Chodorow, ASB adviser at Torrey
Pines High School. "It is the latest trend, and I'm just waiting for a
parachutist to land on campus during the middle of lunch."
From the heartwarming to the heart-wrenching to the downright
hilarious, these unforgettable invitations are being rolled out across
the county.
At Torrey Pines High School in Carmel Valley,
one student hired an airplane to carry a sign over the beach to coax a
girl to prom. Another spelled out his prom request using sushi.
English teacher Johanna Salem delivered an invitation from one
student to another disguised as an order to attend Saturday school.
"She thought she was in trouble," Salem
said. "It's out of control... Just buying a $1,000 prom
dress or getting a Hummer limo doesn't give the thrill that it used to.
Students feel that they have to do much more."
The story includes this passage:
At Patrick Henry High School in San Carlos,
senior Andrew Sabat asked a girl from the roof of the cafeteria. He
recruited the campus DJ to blare royalty fanfare, and a member of the
marching band to give a drum roll as he unveiled a huge sign, which
asked, "Steph, prom with me?"
Senior Stephanie Irwin was stunned. She'd been feeling down since a breakup with a boyfriend two weeks earlier.
"I was like, 'Oh my God. I'm not going to have someone to go to prom with,' " she said.
Now she was in the midst of a surreal moment
where the entire school was awaiting her response to Andrew's
spectacle. And when she accepted, the student DJ played "Hallelujah"
and the students cheered.
Al's Morning Meeting reader Judd Sills tells me that, out in San
Diego, they are in the height of the prom season now. Here in Florida,
our kids are already out on summer vacation.
Floundering Flounder
The Connecticut Post
included an interesting story on the steep decline of flounder in Long
Island Sound. It may be the product of over-fishing spanning decades.
But there is more:
Still
others say the real mystery is why winter flounder are abundant in the
deeper waters mid-Sound and the ocean, where the species traditionally
spends the summer and fall. It's possible they just aren't coming to
shore to spawn.
I included this story because it is such a great example of a topic that connects with the ordinary reader.
The Hurricane Freak-Out Begins
Hey, we have to have something to take the place of the Florida alligator-attack stories, so now we can start the hurricane worry season. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
says there is plenty to worry about this year. Here are some resources
that you might want to bookmark for your coverage this year:
Garage-Sale Permits and eBay
A couple of Al's
Morning Meeting readers have sent me notes in the last few weeks about
what appears to be a decline in garage-sale permits. One reason, so
the speculation goes, could be that people are selling their stuff on eBay
instead.
In Okalahoma City, just for example, residential-sale permits were down 22 percent in April, compared to 2005 figures.
I
suppose it could be that people are just choosing not to get permits.
Does anybody enforce the garage-sale (also known as "residential-sale") permit laws that
many cities have on the books? What happens if a seller gets caught
without a permit?
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of
ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web
sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information
comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link
will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but
depends upon the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited.
Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.
Posted at 7:58:25 PM
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