Since 2004, more than $3 billion in taxpayer money has been funneled into The Pennsylvania Race Horse Development Fund (RHDF), which provides $240 million every year in taxpayer funding to subsidize Pennsylvania’s horse racing industry.  The bulk of this fund has been usedtoprovide cash prizes to wealthy horse owners – people who can afford to jet around the country and the world to indulge in this leisure activity.

And your tax dollars are not only being lavished on people who have so much discretionary income they can gamble it away. Your tax dollars are also being used to subsidize exploitation and cruelty, and the violent slaughter of horses.

Horse racing is an ugly industry. Every year people go to jail for cheating — shooting horses full of performance enhancing drugs. Hundreds and hundreds of young horses are killed or maimed each year while training or racing. And the track that recorded the most horse deaths (59) in 2019 was Parx in Bucks County, PA. Taken as a whole, Pennsylvania racetracks average more than 100 dead horses annually.

There are better uses for more than $200 million in taxpayer money each year than subsidizing cruelty and providing cash prizes to wealthy horse owners.

Pennsylvania has among the highest college tuition rates and its graduates are saddled with thousands in debt. Almost 50% of preschoolers don’t have access to a quality pre-K program. Our school buildings have lead in the water and asbestos in the ceilings and are badly in need of repair. Our school property taxes are rising.

It’s time for a real conversation about the Race Horse Development Fund and Harrisburg lawmakers’ values and priorities.

Click here to register for our webinar on Tuesday, December 8, at 7 pm for a look behind the curtain at cruelty and death in Pennsylvania’s horse racing Industry.

This webinar will feature Patrick Battuello, the founder and president of Horseracing Wrongs, who will share information about Pennsylvania’s horse racing industry and the cruelty and violence that undergird it.

Battuello is the national expert on race horse deaths. He has appeared on HBO’s “Real Sports,” CNN, and ESPN’s “Outside the Line,” and his work has been cited in dozens of newspapers throughout the U.S.

Click here to register for our Tuesday, December 8, webinar at 7 pm.

Protracted school closures and health risks brought about by the global pandemic have stripped away any pretense that all public schools in Pennsylvania are operating on a level playing field. This is wrong.

It’s time for Harrisburg to choose kids over horse racing.