Was Barbaro Abused?

Sadly, Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro broke his leg in the opening of today's Preakness Stakes in Baltimore. My thoughts are with this brave champion. And I pose the following question: Was Barbaro abused? After all, he ran a very tough race just two weeks ago. A human athlete completing the equivalent race -- say, a marathon -- would be permitted to take time off. Nearly all of Barbaro's Kentucky Derby competitors stayed home today (only two showed up to race). Was this champion treated unfairly, just because he was a horse?

Cass Sunstein, one of America's leading legal scholars, has over the past few years joined a chorus of voices calling for greater protection for animal rights. In The Rights of Animals, 70 Chi. L. Rev. 387, he wrote, "[H]orses should not have the right to vote; but they should have a right to good lives for . . . horses." In Standing for Animals, 47 UCLA L. Rev. 1333, he questioned whether animals might or should have standing to sue to vindicate their interest in avoiding suffering. Should Barbaro have been able to sit out, even though he had a chance at the Triple Crown?

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