From: METZE@VMETZE.MRL.UIUC.EDU (Virginia Metze)
Newsgroups: rec.equestrian
Subject: Re: from clarinews: Owners killing horses for insurance mone
Date: 13 Nov 92 02:40:39 GMT
Organization: Materials Research Laboratory
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.24

Does anyone know if any of the people involved in this race horses,
or if there have been any recent scandals involving race horses?

I ask because I am one of the many people who are both interested
in horse racing and handicapping, and are interested as well in
the welfare of race horses and racing/track conditions.  Recently
I got in big trouble with a few people on the mailing list I am on 
for suggesting that SOME people do NOT always care about the welfare 
of their race horses.  I had thought that this was common knowledge, as 
there have been far too many newspaper stories through the years about
drugging of horses, horses being killed for insurance, horses
racing with sore feet, etc.  

I would appreciate any specific information you have about the
treatment of race horses.  By specific I mean incidents that are
not just rumors, but have been reported in newspapers.  Like the
recent drug scandal that was allegedly covered up in California.
(That came from the Daily Racing Form.)

I myself believe that very few race horse owners are not concerned
about their horses.  Indeed, race horses may receive the best care
of any horses in the world.  But my personal belief is that even if
these things happen only now and then, we must be vigilant, because
if we are not vigilant, things will get worse, particularly when
times are bad...

People interested in racing are friends of horses, too.

Please send to metze@vmetze.mrl.uiuc.edu.

Thank you.







In <1992Nov12.215340.20091@cbnews.cb.att.com> amo@cbnews.cb.att.com writes:

> Below is the horrible UPI story someone mentioned.  I think it
> merits reading.  Something should be done about this!
> 
> From: clarinews@clarinet.com (UPI)
> Owners killing horses for insurance money
> 
> 
> 	NEW YORK (UPI) -- Cash-starved horse owners have been hiring assassins
> to murder expensive horses to collect insurance money, Sports
> Illustrated reports.
> 	The article, titled ``Blood Money'' in the current issue and written
> by William Nack and Lester Munson, chronicles how horse killing has
> become commonplace in the world of show horses.
> 	Tommy Burns, a confessed horse killer, told federal agents he
> destroyed some 20 horses on the show-horse circuit from Florida to
> Vermont to Illinois over 10 years. His preferred method of execution was
> electrocution, using a simple extension cord and a pair of alligator clips.
> 	Doctors at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center, one of
> the nation's leading animal hospitals, told Sports Illustrated that even
> the most experienced pathologist would be unlikely to detect signs of
> death by electrocution. In most instances, the horses were assumed to
> have died of colic.
> 	Sometimes a crow bar was used to smash a horse's hind leg, forcing
> veterinarians to put the horse to death by lethal injection. The broken
> leg was assumed to have been caused by the horse kicking against his
> stall.
> 	Burns, who faces sentencing Dec. 14 as a co-conspirator in the death
> of a show horse named Streetwise almost two years ago, has been
> cooperating with the Justice Department in Chicago in hopes of a lighter
> sentence.
> 	Sources told Sports Illustrated that by the time the Internal Revenue
> Service and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms end their
> investigation, as many as 40 owners, trainers, veterinarians and riders
> will be indicted on various charges.
> 	According to the article, among those under investigation are Donna
> Brown and her husband, Buddy Brown, a member of the 1976 U.S. Olympic
> equestrian team, and George Lindemann Jr. of Greenwich, Conn., one of
> the nation's most accomplished equestrians.
> 	The Browns are being investigated concerning the death of two of
> their top show horses, Streetwise and Aramis, while Lindemann is being
> investigated concerning the death of his champion hunter Charisma.
> 	Investigators also have picked up leads on other insurance-related
> deaths not involving Burns and on suspicious stable fires and the
> fraudulent sale of overvalued horses.
> 	The article states that in the 21 months since Burns' arrest
> investigators have developed hard evidence that such crimes have not
> been confined to the show-horse business and that Burns was not the only
> hit man working expensive stables.
> 	Veteran insurance adjusters told the magazine the number of
> suspicious claims by horse owners has increased dramatically in the
> years since the 1986 Tax Reform Act eliminated performance horses as
> depreciable assets. That reform coupled with recession cut the bottom
> out of the horse business, leaving a cash-starved industry with farms
> and stables struggling to stay afloat.
> 
> 


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Virginia Metze, speaking for no one but herself  + Impeach the Rehnquist
metze@vmetze.mrl.uiuc.edu                        + 5, 6, or 7
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
VMS cluster managers:  do you know where your queue manager is right now?
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