A dead racehorse ended up in a W.Va. landfill. How did that happen?
A West Virginia woman recently was stunned at what she saw at a landfill: The stiff body of a dead racehorse being dumped there.
The woman took photos of what she saw at the Brooke County Landfill in Colliers, W.Va., on Sept. 27. Then she called nearby Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort to ask if the horse came from there. Finally, she contacted PETA, which contacted the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office to ask for an investigation.
But it’s unclear that anyone did anything illegal.
Jim Colvin, Mountaineer’s manager of racing operations, confirmed the horse probably came from his track.
When horses are euthanized, “that’s where we take the horses to,” Colvin said Wednesday. “The majority of them. Some are taken back with the owners, if they have an attachment.”
He said this is the track’s normal procedure for handling dead horses and they have a standing arrangement with that landfill to accept those that die at the track.
He said the Mountaineer-based chapter of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, a trainers’ organization, “knows about it because they pay half.”
Photos show this horse in a pile with trash and being dumped out the back of a truck with garbage.
Colvin said that it’s up to the landfill to determine where the carcasses are placed on site.
According to West Virginia statutes, disposing of large animal carcasses in a solid waste landfill is legal.
In fact, it’s legal in most states, including Kentucky.
But Marc Guilfoil, executive director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, said that no Kentucky track does, to his knowledge.
All horses that die at the track, whether while racing or not, are sent to the University of Kentucky Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Lexington for necropsy, he said. Afterward, the remains are cremated.
Amy Gregory, spokeswoman for Keeneland, said in an email that horses that die or are euthanized at the Thoroughbred Training Center on Paris Pike, owned by Keeneland, also are taken for necropsies.
But many Thoroughbred farms also have their own training tracks, and there is no requirement that all horses that die in training be necropsied.
Some Kentucky companies that handle large-animal disposal do take dead animals to landfills but in most cases the animals are processed by renderers.
The National Thoroughbred Racing Association issues accreditation to racetracks that meet its standards, a kind of seal of approval. But NTRA president and CEO Alex Waldrop said there is no industry standard for what to do with dead horses because “the tracks themselves aren’t involved.”
PETA Senior Vice President of Equine Matters Kathy Guillermo said that her organization asked the whistleblower to go back to the landfill to see if she could get a lip tattoo number off the dead horse but she wasn’t allowed back in.
Guillermo said they suspect that the horse might have been one that was injured in a race on Sept. 25. Bridget Moloney, an 8-year-old mare trained by L. Craig Cox, was vanned off after the second race.
Cox told the Thoroughbred Daily News that the mare had been euthanized but he said he was stunned she ended up in the landfill.
Guillermo said in an email that “it’s not the dumping that we’re questioning (though it looks awful), but what happened to the horse before that.”
She said the organization wants officials to investigate whether the horse received proper veterinary treatment.
A statement issued by the West Virginia Racing Commission on Thursday, according to TDN, indicated that proper disposal procedures were not followed.
“From conversations with Mountaineer Park management, it is the understanding of the Racing Commission that Mountaineer Park has an arrangement for the disposal of horse remains and the specific manner in which the disposal is to occur does not appear to have been followed in this case,” the commission said. “With that said, the Racing Commission does not have any specific regulation that directs our racetracks to dispose of horse remains in any specific manner.”
The commission plans on implementing a new policy to necropsy horses that die at the track and “humane and respectful disposition of the remains” will be provided.
“The Racing Commission desires that all equine athletes that compete on our racetracks whose racing lives have come to an end are treated in a dignified and humane manner,” according to the statement. “During the 2019 Legislative Session, the West Virginia Racing Commission was successful in getting legislation passed to give it funds to conduct necropsies on horses that die or that are euthanized on our racetracks. Going forward, as we are able to implement a plan to utilize those funds, deceased horses will be transported to qualified necropsy facilities for a necropsy.”
This story was originally published October 18, 2019 at 11:31 AM.
