The Victims of the Horse Racing Industry

      Every year thousands of horses are born around the world. Many are unwanted and eventually killed, neglected, or abused. The biggest culprit to the overpopulation, and in turn 'unwanted neglected horses' is the thoroughbred horse racing industry. The industry breeds their horses until they have a 'cash winner', and then they run that horse until it is basically broken where they then use the horse for breeding until it's blood line can no longer produce winners. According to a study published in the Journal of Animal Science in December 2010, "More than 100,000 unwanted horses are born in the United States per year. ...Despite this, the racing industry continues to churn out nearly 30,000 thoroughbred foals each year" (Masahiro Satoh, Volume 81, Issue 6). In other words, one third of the 'unwanted' horses born every year is due to the horse racing industry.
 
      For decades, the thoroughbred industry has used a sickening breeding method that only recently has been brought forth. This is how the breeding works: Prized thoroughbred mares are pushed to their biological limits when they are forced to reproduce once a year in order to create as many potential racehorse champions as possible. A horses gestation period is about 11-12 months, meaning breeders have the mares re-impregnated right after giving birth to maximize the productivity, which stops them from nursing their own babies. The newborns are taken away from their mothers within days of delivery, and nursed by surrogate mothers (of 'inferior' breeds such as quarter horses or thoroughbreds with a less desirable pedigree) who have just given birth to their own baby. The babies of these surrogate mothers are know as nurse mare foals and they are often referred as "junk," and "the unwanted and forgotten by-products; simply waste for disposal," according to an article, "Milk of Death: the Dark side of the Nurse Mare Industry," written by Jane Allin. It's not ok that a greedy industry that is just in the business to make money is able to take these babies away from their mothers just after they are born so they can make room for the more 'valuable babies.'

      While separating thoroughbred babies from their mothers is tragic enough, most nurse mare foals face a worse fate than the race horse foals. Many foals (as young as a day old) are killed by clubbing or other means, some are starved to death and others are sold to industries for their hides also known as “pony skin”. Since it is illegal to send foals under six months to slaughter, they skin then to produce high-end leather products such as handbags and belts. Some of the lucky foals are rescued by horse advocacy groups, where they are bottled fed and cared for until they can be adopted.

      In his blog about the Nightmare of the Nurse Mare Foals, Mat Thomas states, "Rescuers nourish nurse mare foals by bottle-feeding them milk replacer, which could theoretically be used to feed thoroughbred foals as well, thus eliminating this exceedingly inhumane breeding practice altogether. There are two main reasons that they don't do this: formula is expensive, and horse breeders maintain that thoroughbreds need to drink real (albeit surrogate) mother's milk from the source to achieve peak athletic performance. Plus, the larger nurse mare farms (concentrated in New York, Kentucky and Tennessee) produce 50 to 100 foals a year, and it is more operationally efficient to make the surrogate mothers do all the work rather than paying human caretakers to feed the foals by hand." Although I accept that thoroughbred foals should be fed formula milk to stop the use of surrogate mothers and the overpopulation of horses, I still insist that the horse racing industry should not breed their horses every year. Race horse owners should stop seeing their horses as 'just a value of money' and see them as a living creature. If the industry keeps on breeding and racing horses the way they do the thoroughbred breed will have many, many health problems down the road.



Nursing Mother Foals

Thoroughbred foal and surrogate mother

Sources:
Horse Racing: Breeding by the Numbers
Milk of Death: The Dark Side the Nurse Mare Industry
BlogSpot: AnimalRighter
PETA: Excessive Breeding and Overpopulation

Why the 2016 Olympics Should Not be Held in Brazil

      Attending the Olympic Games is a huge tradition for almost all countries. The games make a cultural impact on any country who hosts them and brings big economy boosts for many businesses. But in the end they are just games. The Olympic games aren't something that must go on as scheduled in the face of a national health issue. The Zika virus is effecting many woman and children in the Brazilian culture, causing many babies to be born with brain damage and noticeably smaller heads, also known as Microcephaly. Postponing the games would let Brazil get the Zika virus under control -possibly clean up the water for the water events, and create a vaccine- rather than trying to run an Olympics and battle an epidemic at the same time. We should not risk the health of all the athletes, spectators and unborn children by going to Brazil for our own entertainment when we could have the games somewhere else in the world, or post-pone it all together.

      The first modern Olympics took place in Athens, Greece, in 1896, with a crowd of 60,000 people who welcomed 280 participants from 13 nations (Olympic 2016). About 500,000 people are expected to visit Brazil for the 2016 Olympics (Romero and Ruiz 2016). According to the World Health Organization, "Zika has spread to more than 20 nations and territories in the Western Hemisphere, illustrating how quickly the epidemic can expand, even without a big international gathering" (Romero and Ruiz 2016). Infectious disease specialists who are focused on the potential for Zika to be spread to the United States say, "As many as 200,000 Americans are expected to travel to Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics in August. When they return to the Northern Hemisphere and its summer heat, far more mosquitoes will be around to potentially transmit the virus in the United States" (Romero and Ruiz 2016). If we know the virus can spread this fast why would we take the chance of people coming back from Brazil and spreading it over the United States?
     
     If we did proceed to have the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, The International Olympic Committee states,"...We are working with our partners in Rio on measures to deal with the pools of stagnant water around the Olympic venues, where the mosquitoes breed, to minimize the risk of visitors coming into contact with them. It is also important to note that the Rio 2016 Games will take place during the winter months of August and September, when the drier, cooler climate significantly reduces the presence of mosquitoes and therefore the risk of infection" (Caplan 2016).  Yet 'winter' temperatures in Brazil average between 73 to 81 degrees Fahrenheit and mosquitos live in temperatures no lower than 50 degrees Fahrenheit, so even if it is Brazil's 'drier, cooler season,' there is still a risk of mosquitos being around. Two-time Olympic gold medalist and a World Cup medalist for the U.S. women's soccer team Hope Solo said, "Even though she has no plans to become pregnant, she might not go to Brazil unless conditions related to Zika change. 'If I had to make the choice today, I wouldn’t go,' she told Sports Illustrated. 'I would never take the risk of having an unhealthy child.' Solo explained that women athletes have different considerations than men. 'Competing in the Olympics should be a safe environment for every athlete, male and female alike. Female athletes should not be forced to make a decision that could sacrifice the health of a child'" (Olympic Athletes 2016). Even if the Brazilian government assures us that sprays, insect repellants, and other measures will keep mosquitoes at bay we should not take the risk of infecting more women and children, and we should not make the women athletes have to choose if it is safe enough for them to participate in the Olympics Games.

Sources:
The New York Times
Olympic Athletes Concerned with Zika Virus
STAT Article: It's 'Senseless and Irresponsible' to not postpone the 2016 Rio Olympics
History- The Olympics

The Zika Virus

      The Zika virus has risen from a common virus to a world wide epidemic. The virus is now effecting women and children in the Brazilian culture. The virus was thought to have started fifty years ago in Africa, where it was then spread to Southeast Asia. It has now spread to South and Central America, where the epidemic has broken out in Brazil and Columbia.

      The Zika virus is typically transmitted by Aedes mosquitos, where one in five people infected will become ill. The illness is usually mild, lasting for several days to a week, with common

Aedes Mosquito

symptoms of a fever, rash, joint pain, muscle pain, headaches, and conjunctivitis (red eyes). In my opinion, these symptoms sound like a common cold and flu. So, how is the Zika virus considered an epidemic?  

      The epidemic was declared an international health emergency by the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) in 2016, when new born babies in Brazil were born with Microcephaly. Pregnant women with the Zika virus cause Microcephaly within newborns. Scientists believe the virus can also be sexually transmitted according to Brazilian health officials, who discovered traces of the active virus in saliva and urine. W.H.O. says, "As many as four million people could be infected by the end of the year." According to the World Health Organization, Brazil saw on average, 163 cases of Microcephaly annually over the past five years prior to the Zika outbreak. After the Zika outbreak, public health officials in Brazil investigated more than 4,000 cases of suspected Microcephaly, and have confirmed more than 400 cases so far. Microcephaly is a birth defect where a baby's head is smaller than expected. Infants that are diagnosed with the condition often have smaller brains, and often suffer health problems such as: seizures, developmental delays, disability problems with movement and balance, as well as hearing and vision loss. In infants with severe cases, their lifespan can be months to as long as ten years.

     
      As of right now, there are no cures, or medications to prevent the Zika virus for at least a couple of years, Zika virus cure debate. Officials at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention have urged pregnant women not to travel to about two dozen countries- mostly in the Caribbean and Latin American countries where the outbreak is growing- until they have found a vaccination for the virus. Hopefully, this epidemic will not affect the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.









Sources:
Daily Mail: Birth defects linked to Zika virus are 'more severe than simple microcephaly', expert warns
Area's with the Zika virus
The New York Times