Animal Wellness Groups Weigh in on Implementation of Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act that Takes Effect Friday

LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY, USA, July 1, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Today, as the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act signed into law in December of 2020 officially takes effect, Marty Irby, executive director at Animal Wellness Action (AWA) and senior vice-president at the Center for a Humane Economy (CHE) released the following statement on behalf of AWA, CHE, and the Animal Wellness Foundation:

"We are elated the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act’s effective date has finally arrived after six years of tireless lobbying in nearly a thousand meetings, and an additional eighteen months of waiting since the measure was signed into law in December of 2020 by President Trump.

“We hope that the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) created by the new law will remain objective and unwavering in their charge to stamp out the rampant doping in the sport, and crackdown with a fierce and heavy hand against cheaters and horse abusers that have snubbed reform and rigged the system for decades. HISA is the industry's last chance to convince the betting public that horse racing is a legitimate sport.”

Background:

Animal Wellness Action has been leading the charge to stamp out doping in American horse racing in the animal welfare space and Irby testified before the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020 in support of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act just weeks before the indictment of nearly 30 trainers, veterinarians, and other horse racing parties involved in the largest horse-related doping scandal the U.S. has ever seen. Animal Wellness Action was also instrumental in preventing notorious horse trainer Bob Baffert from competing in all three Triple Crown races in 2022 due to drug violations related to the late Medina Spirit who crossed the finish line first at the 2021 Kentucky Derby, and was ultimately disqualified after his untimely death at Santa Anita Park from a cardiac event in December of 2021.

Irby's latest op-eds on the subject published in May by NBC News national can be found here, and by the Baltimore Post-Examiner can be found here.

The Animal Wellness Foundation (Foundation) is a Los Angeles-based private charitable organization with a mission of helping animals by making veterinary care available to everyone with a pet, regardless of economic ability. We organize rescue efforts and medical services for dogs and cats in need and help homeless pets find a loving caregiver. We are advocates for getting veterinarians to the front lines of the animal welfare movement; promoting responsible pet ownership; and vaccinating animals against infectious diseases such as distemper. We also support policies that prevent animal cruelty and that alleviate suffering. We believe helping animals helps us all.

Animal Wellness Action (Action) is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(4) organization with a mission of helping animals by promoting legal standards forbidding cruelty. We champion causes that alleviate the suffering of companion animals, farm animals, and wildlife. We advocate for policies to stop dogfighting and cockfighting and other forms of malicious cruelty and to confront factory farming and other systemic forms of animal exploitation. To prevent cruelty, we promote enacting good public policies, and we work to enforce those policies. To enact good laws, we must elect good lawmakers, and that’s why we remind voters which candidates care about our issues and which ones don’t. We believe helping animals helps us all.

The Center for a Humane Economy (“the Center”) is a non-profit organization that focuses on influencing the conduct of corporations to forge a humane economic order. The first organization of its kind in the animal protection movement, the Center encourages businesses to honor their social responsibilities in a culture where consumers, investors, and other key stakeholders abhor cruelty and the degradation of the environment and embrace innovation as a means of eliminating both.

Marty Irby
Animal Wellness Action
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