As California Legalizes Betting on Human Sports, Repeal Betting on Live Horse Racing!

As California Legalizes Betting on Human Sports, Repeal Betting on Live Horse Racing!

Started
October 2, 2021
Petition to
California State Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon
Signatures: 1,281Next Goal: 1,500
Support now

Why this petition matters

Started by Kill Racing Not Horses

As California considers amending our Constitution to allow wagering on human sports, it is time to recognize that we no longer need to exploit horses for revenue and profit. While we are amending our Constitution to allow wagering on human sports, we can also amend it to relieve horses of the abuse and death documented in the horse racing industry. What other “sport” has 73 deaths of its “athletes” in just 1 year in only 5 venues in a single state, as reported by the CA Horse Racing Board? http://chrb.ca.gov/racing_fatalities.aspx What other “sport” has at least 7,500 of its retired “athletes” annually sent to slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada, as reported by the president of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association? https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/horseracing/2019/10/31/breeders-cup-horses-go-racetracks-slaughterhouses/2485345001/

As the Washington Post Editorial Board wrote in March 2020:  "No other accepted sport exploits defenseless animals as gambling chips. No other accepted sport tolerates the cruelties that routinely result in the injury and death of these magnificent animals. The rot in horse racing goes deep. It is a sport that has outlived its time."  https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/horse-racing-has-outlived-its-time/2020/03/12/5dd48e46-6476-11ea-acca-80c22bbee96f_story.html

The sports betting market in California is projected to be worth over $4 billion a monthmore than an entire year of betting on horse races, which has declined 18.5% since 2010. However, with the size of California’s economy, and the tourism aspect of California in play, it is possible that California could reach $5 billion a month during the NFL season in total wagers collected. https://www.lineups.com/betting/california-sports-betting/ With this projected market size, betting on human sports could readily fund retraining and job/housing placement for workers in California’s horse racing industry, including the horses.

Live horse racing has long outlived its original purpose in 1933 to generate revenue. While we are amending our Constitution to allow wagering on human sports, we can also amend it to relieve horses of the abuse and death documented in the horse racing industry. This would be consistent with California’s leadership to ban cruel industries – most recently, the manufacture and sale of fur products, the retail sale of dogs, cats and rabbits, the use of wild species in circuses, and animal testing of cosmetic and personal care items. These industries all have employees, yet Californians have acted to end them in our state due to the cruelty to animals inherent in these industries. The employees, contractors and vendors in these industries will migrate to other industries just as those in past defunct industries have.

Time to put live racing out of the horses’ misery. 

President Pro Tem Atkins and Speaker Rendon, please lead the way in putting a Proposition on California's November 2022 Ballot to repeal the legalization of betting on live horse racing from our State Constitution, as we also vote on legalizing betting on human sports.  We call upon you to start this process soon, so that the Legislature can vote to do this by June 2022.  THANK YOU 

Support now
Signatures: 1,281Next Goal: 1,500
Support now
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Decision Makers

  • California State Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon