Will Someone Shut Up PETA?

By BRANDON FINLEY
Sports Columnist

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for PETA as a group, but their latest mess is just ridiculous. That's because PETA wants to look into the treating of the horse Eight Belles, who was sadly euphonized following a tragic collapse that broke both of her legs.

PETA is a corporation that is usually on the upright swing of things. They seem to have a head on their shoulders. Should we limit the production of fur coats? Probably, but there's just something wrong with looking at the trainers and owners of Eight Belles.

Let's just stop to use common sense for one second. The owners put millions of dollars into these horses every year in order to race them. There's only a limited of time in each horse's racing life. Most race horses compete from the age of three to five. After that the horse is then studded out for very lucrative amounts of money.

Now let's think about Eight Belles, and how that relates. Eight Belles wasn't your average horse. In fact, Eight Belles was a she. Of the other nineteen horses running in the Kentucky Derby can you guess how many more fillies? (Female race horses) Eight Belles was the only filly, which made her stock even more valuable. Why would the owners want to put an end to the life of a horse that could potentially make them millions of dollars by breeding?

While PETA is usually spot on in their assessment over the treating of animals this is a case where they should just leave their mouths shut. This is a tragic event for horse racing, and one that preventive efforts will surely be made to avoid this in the future. However, there's a time when you just have to let people clean up their own mess, and not bring more trash to the dump.