Animal News
Texas is home to nearly 50 underground horse racing tracks, investigation finds
U.S. Quarter Horse jockey Everardo Rodriguez wearing shock devices on his wrists.
Animal advocacy organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has uncovered a world of underground horse racing tracks in Texas, where illegal gambling and other crimes occur.
According to a release, PETA has been investigating a phenomenon called "bush tracks" where crimes include horses being electroshocked, injected with street drugs, and other acts of cruelty to get them to race fast.
PETA's search has found nearly 50 unregulated, unlicensed horse racing tracks operating across Texas and is calling on Texas officials to do an investigation.
Photos and video from unlicensed tracks show:
- Race participants openly wielding syringes while handling horses. Injecting horses with illegal drugs—including cocaine and methamphetamine—is a widespread practice at bush tracks to mask injuries and kill pain in the hopes of achieving breakneck speeds.
- Multiple jockeys seen with electric shock devices—used to shock horses in the neck during races to push them beyond their limits—strapped to their wrists.
- Horses whipped violently up to dozens of times in just seconds.
- A horse that caught fire at a facility in Anderson County.
Texas is home to four times as many unregulated tracks as any other state, but PETA has evidence of more than 100 of these tracks flying under the radar across the U.S., from California to Virginia.
In an undercover investigation of a bush track in Georgia, PETA collected 27 syringes and/or needles, on six different dates. Testing by a Racing Medication & Testing Consortium lab revealed that syringes contained cocaine, methamphetamine, methylphenidate (Ritalin), and caffeine, sometimes in combination.
Investigators witnessed horses being injected in the neck shortly before races, often on the racetrack itself. Racers experiment with drug cocktails to rev horses up, mask injuries, and kill pain, in hopes of achieving maximum speed.
“Rampant abuse, illegal drugs, and greed are the hallmarks of the seedy underworld of black market horse racing,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “PETA is calling on Gov. Greg Abbott and other state officials to crack down on this cruel and criminal conduct before many more horses are shot up, shocked, or beaten.”
PETA has video on its website showing some of the incidents, including jockeys such as U.S. Quarter Horse jockey Everardo Rodriguez wearing shock devices on their wrists. Sammy Mendez, who was the leading jockey at Indiana Grand, was suspended for 20 years for possessing a shock device, but now uses them while participating in unregulated races.
Other jockeys named include Jose Beltran, Alex Carrillo, Patricio "Peluchin" Aguilera, and Eduardo Nicasio.
Quarter Horses are the fastest breed at running a quarter-mile or less. These “match races” feature two to six horses competing at breakneck speeds on a straightaway track at distances from 5 to 400 yards. A typical race day involves up to 20 races.
PETA also sent a letter to the Texas Animal Health Commission providing evidence that race participants are illegally importing horses from other states without the required veterinary testing—which risks the spread of serious diseases, including equine infectious anemia, a highly transmissible and potentially fatal blood-borne virus that affects horses and has no vaccine or treatment.
