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July 5, 2008 5:56:49 PM CDT

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PETA Cries Foul Over Filly's Death

Posted May 5, 08 10:44 AM CDT in Sports    Most Covered

(Newser) – PETA is calling for broad reforms in horse racing after the second-place finisher in Saturday's Kentucky Derby broke her two front legs and was immediately euthanized, reports the Lexington Herald-Leader. PETA is calling for horses to begin training at their third birthdays, rather than their second, and also for synthetic surfaces on all racetracks, which offer less of a pounding to the animals' legs.

The organization also wants the jockey who rode filly Eight Belles to have his license suspended, and the owners to have their second-place prize revoked until an inquiry is complete. "Compassionate people will not tolerate for long a sport whose champions end up lying dead in the dirt," writes PETA's president in a letter to the agency that regulates the sport.

Source Lexington Herald-Leader

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PETA activists, clad partly with fresh lettuce, hold placards as they protest at a square outside a Catholic church in Manila's Quiapo district Friday April 18, 2008, in the Philippines.   (AP Photo)
Track personnel try to hold down Eight Belles after the 134th Kentucky Derby Saturday, May 3, 2008, at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.   (AP Photo/Brian Bohannon)
Filly Eight Belles makes a face as she gets a bath in happier days.   (AP Photo/Garry Jones)
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