I won't soon forget Eight Bells...

On the day of the Preakness Stakes, the second race of Triple Crown fame, many may still be thinking of fillie Eight Belles, whom raced hard at the end of the Kentucky Derby to finish second. The tragedy that happened afterwards, most know.

I shed tears for Eight Belles, just as I had for Michael Vick's dogs. And the more I think about it, the more I lean towards horse racing, in it's current form, being cruelty to animals.

Arguments as tremendously feeble as "it's part of the sport" or "we treat these animals like royalty, but sometimes these things happen" are flatly unacceptable.

I was disgusted by the news stories and interviews with industry insiders, and I think everyone else should be too. These majestic animals don't deserve this treatment, and when one interviewee suggests that horses are meant to be raced because if you see they in a meadow, they are running about playfully, it makes me sick.

Do these people have no conscious? Like dog owners who fight their dogs, these people who think like this don't deserve to be pet owners.

Associated Press sports columnist Tim Dahlberg wrote, "The people who cried for Eight Belles got it out of the way on the track. They had no choice, because the business of racing goes on."

What a nice compassionate observation there. Tim goes on to say, "Racing is a brutal business because it has to be. If we mourned every horse that lost its life early on the track or in the barn, we'd have no time left to cheer those who can still run." Is this guy serious? When he explains that "...these 1,000-pound beasts are bred and raised for maximum speed, not maximum life span", does not a little of him die inside? Maybe he's made these matter of fact statements so callously in the past that he is completely dead inside. The evidence may be in Tim's final statement where he quotes Big Brown trainer saying how this is part of the game and you have to go through it, before ending his article with "said Big Brown trainer Rick Dutrow Jr., who should have been spending the day celebrating his horse's big win."

Now folks, I don't typically call people out here...I like to keep things civil. But this kind of unparalleled lack of empathy has my blood boiling. And this is just a reporter. Imagine what the people in the business say and think.

So for me, this is right along the lines of dog fighting. These beautiful animals can't tell us what they want...they can't tell us that they are hurting...they can't opt not to race. They do what they are told/trained to do. They are loving animals, like many pets, and mostly want to please us....and we thank them with ultimate betrayal.

I don't know what the answer is...maintaining over 100 years of tradition vs. banning the sport entirely...you don't get more polarized than that. All I know is that a young female horse, who like all animals should be bred for maximum lifespan, is no longer with us. She did nothing more than love her owners and tried to please them. It's sad. It's cruel. And it needs to stop.