By Nicole Arciello | Executive Director
Dear friends of the horses,
We are pleased to bring you a celebratory update of the last couple months!
Triple Crown Billboard Campaign
As with last year, Horseracing Wrongs was well-represented at all three Triple Crown races, with two mobile billboards at each – the Kentucky Derby in Louisville, The Preakness Stakes in Baltimore, the Belmont Stakes in New York. Running (in tandem) for eight straight hours, the trucks circled the tracks and traversed the cities. This exposure is priceless, as attested by feedback from media and the public alike!
Triple Crown Protests
In May, Patrick and I joined our wonderful Maryland team – 60 activists strong – for a protest at the Preakness Stakes. Highlights included an interview with ABC Baltimore and countless educational leaflets distributed! A few weeks later, we were back in action at the Belmont Stakes. There, in addition to two television interviews (NBC NY, CBS NY) and one print, we had a documentary crew filming (more on that to come!)!
Campaign to End Horseracing Subsidies in New York
We continue hard at work on ending the $230 million in corporate welfare doled out to the cruel, deadly NYS horseracing industry. As part of this campaign, and in support of a legislative bill that we were instrumental in getting introduced, we hand-delivered to every NYS legislator a copy of our “NY’s Dead Racehorses Since 2014” booklet accompanied by a letter written by Patrick. In addition, with the simple goal of educating, Patrick wrote a personal letter to Governor Hochul. Horseracing Wrongs also gave a live webinar to teach and empower New York State residents lobbying skills to be an effective voice for the horses! Participants learned how to find their legislators contact information, write personalized and professional handwritten letters and practice scripts for follow up phone calls.
Horseracing Wrongs also launched an online tool to make it fast and easy for NYS Residents to send an email to legislators asking them to co-sponsor the bill to end horseracing subsidies. This tool will also allow us to connect citizens in every state with their lawmakers to be an effective voice for the horses!
FOIA Reporting Continues
Our FOIA reports are the very best way to expose horseracing for what it is, and only we have ever done it. Patrick has just recently filed half-year FOIA requests, so look for those reports soon.
Cruelty Investigations
Our team is watching the racing industry closely and we have been able to obtain footage of horses confined in stalls, suffering abuse from whips, tongue ties and bits and video footage of horses suffering catastrophic injuries in races. This footage helps us work with media to help expose the cruelty and the killing in an effort to get mainstream media to report the truth.
The Pledge to Boycott Horseracing
We recently released an online Pledge to Boycott Horseracing, for advocates can sign and share and promise to never watch, bet on, or attend a horserace. The pledge has over 1,000 signers and counting. If this is the first time you have heard about the pledge, please take a moment at the likn above and sign and share with everyone you know!
We can't do any of this without YOU!
We are a small, hardworking organization! We all know that a small group of people can make a difference. We couldn't have gotten this far without the financial support of our donors - fierce advocates - who believe in our work, and share our mission and our passion!
Please consider joining us as a monthly donor here on GlobalGiving and get your first month's donation matched!
Thank you all for loving the horses!
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