CHRB Vet Defends HBO Over 'Luck' Horses' Deaths (Poll)

Veterinarian Dr. Rick Arthur, the equine medical director for the California Horse Racing Board, defended HBO and the producers of the new series in response to criticism from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

The criticism stemmed from reports that during filming at last year and had to be euthanized.

“I think the comments from PETA were unfair,” Arthur told Patch. “ showed tremendous concern for the horses, and they were very well cared for.”

Some 30 to 50 horses were rotated in for the race scenes, and no horse was allowed to run more than three times a day. The race scenes were done in very short takes and edited so that they appear to be one long sequence.

“I don’t think PETA knows what precautions were taken,” Arthur said. “The American Humane Association has specific requirements and layered on top of that are safety procedures required by the CHRB for all horse activity that takes place within a racing facility.

“We in horse racing realize that horses do get hurt. But there was no negligence, and no one did anything wrong.”

PETA has requested the pathology reports on the two horses that were euthanized from the CHRB. Arthur said, in accordance with CHRB policy, those are generally not provided to the public. The necropsy reports were provided to the Animal Humane Association through the production’s attending veterinarian.

Everything Was Monitored

On Friday morning, most of the horsemen at for the morning workouts at Santa Anita declined to comment. But one person involved in racetrack portion of the filming of Luck who requested that his name not be used said, “It’s all BS. Everything was monitored, and no horses were abused.”

Filming for of the first season of Luck has been concluded. The incidents involving the horses that were euthanized took place during the filming of the first and seventh episodes, according to HBO.

In the first episode, through the wonders of computerized editing, a horse is shown breaking down. But the horse that was euthanized was not involved in the shooting of that scene.

The American Humane Association said it conducted a full investigation after both incidents. Karen Rosa, a senior vice president for the association, told Entertainment Weekly that a safety representative “was monitoring the animal action and verified that all soundness checks had been performed by an on-set veterinarian.”