In light of poor Barbaro and his struggle that ended with him being euthanized, I'm wondering what others think of the horse racing industry.

I was hoping somebody would post this!! I cried for Barbaro when I heard the news. I can only hope this was a direct "good" learning curve for all future horse veterinarians out there!! I love horses too much to see them hurt OR suffer!!! :heartbeat: MAY BARBARO REST IN PEACE. AMEN. :kaosleeping:

I go to Penn Vet, where Barbaro was treated. Everything is so politcally driven over there, unfortunately. No one sees the bigger picture with this. All they do is pine over how wonderful the Jackson's are (Barbaro's owners); they're "VIP clients" we were told by the higher ups at our school. :no:

Yes, so unfortunate bigger $$$ universities are usually politically "stuffed"!! I guess poor Barbaro was somewhat of guinea pig of sorts? I only hope he will have left a legacy, and taught a good lesson to horse owners!

Dr. Richardson (Barbaro's vet and one of my professors) did an amazing job with Barbaro. He was the only one who remained realistic throughout the whole thing, and the reality was that most horses would have been euthanized right at the racetrack with that type of an injury. He never once made mention of his complex surgery in our classes (he discussed other similar procedures), and he seemed to really not like all of the attention from the media. He knew that poor Barbaro's chances were slim, and I'm glad that he made the smart call to let Barbaro go peacefully before things got worse for him. I wish our society would stop romanticizing this "sport".

Any sport involving animals should be done away with, but unfortunately the money generated by racetracks, rodeos and the like will prevent that from ever happening. How sad.