In response to the Thoroughbred Daily News report that no live racing deaths occurred at Santa Anita Park or Del Mar in 2022, Animal Wellness Action (AWA), the Animal Wellness Foundation (AWF) based in Los Angeles, and the Center for a Humane Economy (CHE), applauded the California horse racing interests with the following statement from AWA executive director and CHE senior vice-president Marty Irby:
“We applaud the leaders at Santa Anita and Del Mar, as well as the California Horse Racing Board for working so diligently to ensure the welfare and safety of the horses are a top priority. Ensuring only healthy and sound horses are allowed to run should be the top priority of every track and racing jurisdiction in America and it’s refreshing to see the great news that no live racing deaths occurred at Santa Anita or Del Mar in 2022.”
“Animal Wellness Action, the Animal Wellness Foundation, and the Center for a Humane Economy remain steadfast in our efforts to eradicate doping, whipping, and other abuses in American horse racing and we will not rest until every abuser and cheater is eradicated from the sport.”
Congress recently included language to uphold the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) in the federal year-end spending bill for FY23 signed into law in December. Animal Wellness Action and others in the Coalition for Horse Racing Integrity lobbied for the inclusion of the language following a recent court decision that deemed the new law ‘unconstitutional.’
Animal Wellness Action also led the charge in the animal protection space to enact HISA and Irby testified in support of the legislation designed to better protect racehorses before Congress in January 2020, just weeks before the indictment of more than two dozen individuals involved in the largest horse doping scandal ever seen.
Animal Wellness Action (Action) is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(4) organization with a mission of helping animals by promoting legal standards forbidding cruelty. We champion causes that alleviate the suffering of companion animals, farm animals, and wildlife. We advocate for policies to stop dogfighting and cockfighting and other forms of malicious cruelty and to confront factory farming and other systemic forms of animal exploitation. To prevent cruelty, we promote enacting good public policies and we work to enforce those policies. To enact good laws, we must elect good lawmakers, and that’s why we remind voters which candidates care about our issues and which ones don’t. We believe helping animals helps us all.
The Animal Wellness Foundation (Foundation) is a Los Angeles-based private charitable organization with a mission of helping animals by making veterinary care available to everyone with a pet, regardless of economic ability. We organize rescue efforts and medical services for dogs and cats in need and help homeless pets find a loving caregiver. We are advocates for getting veterinarians to the front lines of the animal welfare movement; promoting responsible pet ownership; and vaccinating animals against infectious diseases such as distemper. We also support policies that prevent animal cruelty and that alleviate suffering. We believe helping animals helps us all.
The Center for a Humane Economy is a non-profit organization that focuses on influencing the conduct of corporations to forge a humane economic order. The first organization of its kind in the animal protection movement, the Center encourages businesses to honor their social responsibilities in a culture where consumers, investors, and other key stakeholders abhor cruelty and the degradation of the environment and embrace innovation as a means of eliminating both.
Contact: Marty Irby
202-821-5686
marty@animalwellnessaction.org