Gambling + animals = a horrible combination
December 4th, 2008 by admin
For months, state agriculture officials have been scrambling to contain an outbreak of equine piroplasmosis, a potentially-deadly disease that is usually transmitted by a certain type of tick. Since August, 25 horses in Florida have tested positive for the disease. 17 horses have been euthanized, and hundreds more have been placed under quarantine. But invesigators couldn’t find any ticks that carried the disease. Now they have a new theory. According to an article in Monday’s St. Petersburg Times, when investigators realized that all of the infected animals were quarter horses, a breed commonly used in racing, they began to suspect that humans were behind the outbreak.
Investigators soon learned that the horses had been brought to small dirt tracks for races. “Presumably gambling was involved,” said a Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services spokesperson. Horse owners won’t admit it, but the state suspects that the disease was spread through needle sharing and the injection of steroids or other drugs to make horses run faster.