Hi, I'm Elizabeth Novregrat's welcome to Species Unite, the podcast where we talk to people who are fighting some of the hardest fights on earth to stop the

stop the unnecessary suffering of animals.

On Sunday, June 23rd, the winter racing season at San Anita

racetrack in Southern California finally came to a close.

And on Saturday, June 22nd, the 30th horse died in racing or training at San Anita this year. That's a lot of horse deaths, but there are a lot of horse

deaths every year. In 2018, 493 thoroughbreds died in racing or training.

Today I'm talking to Patrick Batuelo.

He started the organization,

Horse Racing Rongs in 2012.

There's been a lot of talk of reforms in the horse racing world right now, but the reforms

and the restrictions that have already been put in place aren't really working.

Horses are still dying.

And so Patrick and horse racing wrongs take a different approach.

A complete abolition of horse racing, period.

And with all these deaths, I can't see how more people aren't going to get behind them.

This is a really big year for your organization and not in a good way, but in terms of media, attention, and horse racing deaths.

There's been 29 at Santa Anita. There's been how many through the country.

Actually, it's 35 Beth. We have six other horses who died back in their stalls.

And when you see the reports in the mainstream media it's always

the 29 who died on track but clearly those other six are casualties of the industry.

So 35 thus far at San Juanita but it's important to remember that this is not an anomaly.

Those numbers are incredible.

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