TB Racing Commission Says "No" to TB Rescue!!!

To all who respect and care about the welfare of racehorses...

Date: Sunday, August 31, 2008, 7:50 PM

Dear friends,

Please take the time to read the following letter offered by Jo Anne Normile, the founder of CANTER, and then please TAKE ACTION to write letters and make calls as Jo Anne has requested.

The action taken by the MI Racing Commission and Pinnacle Race Course to prevent a rescue group from having a presence at the track in order to help safely transition retiring racehorses on to new careers, is just simply unacceptable!! Please crosspost this letter far and wide, and urge your contacts to TAKE ACTION!!

Your immediate help is needed for Michigan's Thoroughbred racehorses!

SHAMEFULLY: After doing so for 11 years, in 2008, the Michigan
Racing Commission refused to issue track licenses for CANTER MICHIGAN
volunteers who used to walk the shed rows each week and through those
years assisted thousands of horses that would have been picked up by
kill buyers or auction/slaughter dealers. CANTER MICHIGAN received
the Catalyst of the Year award in 2001 by the Michigan Horse Council
for "Significant contribution to the Michigan horse industry", and
positive publicity on Michigan's racing industry working with CANTER
appeared in over 80 newspapers and magazines and televised stories
including CNN.

EQUALLY SHAMEFUL: The ban of the rescue volunteers in the shed rows
has been going on for two months during live racing and neither
Pinnacle Race Course nor the racing trainers or their horsemen's
organization have interceded with the Racing Commission to allow
licenses for the CANTER rescue so their horses can have a chance at
surgery, rehabilitation and life after racing.

MOST SHAMEFUL: The Commissioner did grant licenses to trainers who
are well known auction/kill buyers. While other tracks like Suffolk
Downs and Delaware Park are exposing the kill buyer side of racing
and penalizing trainers who sell horses to auctions/kill buyers,
Michigan's new self-described "first class" Pinnacle Race Course is
doing the OPPOSITE!

I'll let you ask them why because I do not know. Could this action
have anything to do with a major Detroit television station's
November 2007 hidden camera investigation regarding running injured
horses and entitled "One Race too Many"? Could it be because I
honestly replied to a Congressional request for information on
injured Thoroughbred horses for the Congressional sub-committee
hearing "Breeding, Drugs, and Breakdowns: The State of Thoroughbred
Horseracing and the Welfare of the Thoroughbred" on June 19 and
supplied witness Allie Conrad, the CANTER-Mid Atlantic executive
director, with information on horses that were injured or euthanized
due to their participation in Michigan racing? (See CANTERS testimony by clicking the link below)
http://www.canterusa.org/AllieConradTestimony.pdf

Could it be because Michigan's racing industry keeps racing's dark secret
and we do not?

PLEASE CONTACT the following people to ask why CANTER representatives
have been refused licensing, and to voice your concern for these
horses and protest the banishment of CANTER-Michigan from Pinnacle
Race Course.

Christine White, Michigan Racing Commissioner at 517-335-1420 or
WhiteC9@michigan. gov

Felicia Campbell, Pinnacle Race Course Chairman and CEO at 734-543-
3200

Michael McInerney, President, Pinnacle Race Course
mmcinerney@pinnacle racecourse. com

Gary Tinkle, Michigan HBPA at 734-753-2000 or mailto:mihbpa@aol.com

The Detroit News rluna@detnews. com don.naussw@detnews. com

The Detroit Free Press jswikard@freepress. com dzeman@freepress. com

Nationally, please contact the following:

Alex Waldrop NTRA at 1-800-792-NTRA or mailto:ntra@ntra.com

PLEASE ALSO be sure and see and sign the petition we have created by clicking on to the title of this post above.

MICHIGAN'S THOROUGHBRED RACEHORSES SAY "THANK YOU!" AND SO DO WE!