Re: "If horses could speak, what would they say?" Sept. 5.
As someone with a lifelong love of horses, I have to respond to the letter about how Ontario racehorses will be destroyed by their owners if the Ontario racing industry collapses.
Being destroyed by their owners will happen to a few lucky horses.
Most of those unwanted racehorses will spend their last few days of life in fear, terror, hunger and thirst while being trucked for days to a slaughterhouse, just like many racehorses before them.
The only controversy in the thoroughbred horse racing industry is the final fate of a slaughtered horse's corpse - will it be eaten by mankind or not? Many industry professionals do not want their horses eaten.
Every horse has a dollar value by the pound, and in horse racing even champions have been known to go to slaughter.
Does anybody remember the carriage horse that spent his days pulling tourists over Victoria's pavement and concrete with three shoes and a raw quarter crack? The driver showed no concern, obviously management didn't care and business owners have their priorities.
Susan Robertson
Victoria
