Olympic Games horses test positive for chilli pepper drug capsaicin
62Capsaicin
Olympic Games horses test positive
In sports it is not just the human contestants that fall foul of the anti-doping rules and tests to combat the problem. In the current Olympic Games held in Beijing as many as four horses have tested positive for the banned substance capsaicin, which comes from chilli peppers.
The jockeys in charge of the horses have all been suspended. They are Denis Lynch from Ireland, who was riding the horse Lantinus in the individual events, Norwegian rider Tony Andre Hansen on Camiro, Brazilian horseman Bernardo Alves on Chupa Chup and Christian Ahlmann from Germany on Coster.
Jockeys Lynch, Hansen and Alves had been all due to take part in Thursday's individual competition.
If the B sample tests that were conducted on the four horses confirm their A samples, their respective countries will be disqualified from the team show jumping, which was staged on Monday.
Capsaicin is an irritant and causes the hot sensation in the peppers it comes from. It is applied to the front of the legs of horses to cause them to lift them up.
Wikipedia says "Capsaicin is a banned substance in equestrian sports because of its hypersensitising and pain relieving properties."
Animal rights activists often protest that horse racing is an abuse of the animals and PETA (People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and other groups will no doubt have much to say about this case.
Link for more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsaicin
Copyright © 2009 Steve Andrews. All Rights Reserved.
Horse Racing: Cruelty Behind the Glamour
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Thanks, Christoph!
While I am all for the ethical treatment of animals, I am staunchly opposed to groups such as PETA which advocate a more rigid standard for animals than people!
If it is legal for me to eat chili peppers, what the h*** is wrong with applying it to a horse's legs to help him perform better?
I think there should be an umbrella group for orginizations like PETA called "Activists 'R Fools"...
Wonder how many people I p***** off with THAT comment? lol
Me for starters! Can you imagine having the stuff rubbed into your skin? I would imagine the pain would be intense! I don't know for sure but I assume the horses lift there legs up because it is hurting them!
Horse racing is cruel anyway!
I don't know if it would cause pain rubbed on a joint. Well chillie certainly tastes hot and burns if you rub it into ones eye by accident which I have done by accident when cooking before now. But we put things on the skin such as sugical spirit, meths, TCP, Ralgex that would be extremly hot if one tasted them. Well I did once put some sugical spirit on my tongue once, I don't know how some people can drink meths because it's pretty burny to the taste, and I know TCP is very hot to the taste to, well you can use it as a mouthwash in very dilute form, but even then it's strong, yet you can put neat TCP on a cut without ill effect.
So it depends really whether capsiacin would irritate the skin. It may just create a warm sensation like Ralgex which is used for soothing backache and joint pain. In which case it wouldn't be cruel. But obviosly might it be considered an unfair advantage in a sporting event so considered to be cheating. But whether it would be cruel I don't know, although in my expereince with chillie peppers it normally just causes a warm sensation on the skin in which case it might be considered more theraputic than cruel.
Don't really know enough about it, but I wouldn't assume just because someting is hot to the taste that it would cause pain or irritation to the skin it might actually be quite soothing and help the animals.
It is defined as an "irritant" and I don't see how such a substance "rubbed in" can fail to hurt. The news article fails to explain what it does really but Wikipedia calls it an irritant and my experiences with chillis is to be careful and wash hands after using them.
What your suggesting is that the animal needs "soothing," which implies there is something wrong to start with, which in itself implies cruelty to the horse! If the animal is unfit to start with then it shouldn't be racing! Many animal rights people would argue that horses shouldn't be racing period and I would agree with those that do!
Please see the following articles for why:
http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/CAMPAIGNS/horse/AL
and
Well I dare say there are many things that would be called irritants. That doesn't necessarily mean anything though particularly in relation to a horse which doesn't have human skin and is covered in fur. The effect might simply be a soothing warm sensation that helps prevent muscle damage.
I don't really agree with a lot of so called Animal Right people. The problem is if animals are of no use to humans they often simply go extinct Whether we like it or not we have a relationship with animals. Theres no ideal world where animals can live happy lives. In the wild animals eat each other. What's better being a race horse, being well fed and looked after most of one's life and having a good run now and again, or living on a grassy plain where if there's a drought you might die horribly of starvation and thirst, or if a lion catches you, you get torn to bits with no mercy and die in writhing agony.
I think some of these animal rights people just hate people and have completly un-realistic romatic views about animals and nature that have absolutely no basis in reality. I suppose they try to humanise animals but that isn't understanding animals that simply projecting human values on animals, but it's nonesense IMO because animals are not people, animals are animals and I suppose the only thing humans have in common with animals is under the vaneer of civilisation we are animals to.
Under the horse's fur is sensitive skin just like ours and if you rub an irritant into it it will hurt. The fur is a protection and barrier but rubbing gets through that. I wouldn't dream of rubbing chillis on my skin!
Yes, my dad says what you do that if it wasn't for people farming animals that they wouldn't be here. I would say well that would be a better situation than to have them in a world where the likelihood is that their lives will be full of suffering. Same applies to why animal lovers campaign for neutering of cats and dogs - the majority end up with short lives full of suffering so it would be better they were not here at all!
I would argue that a wild horse on a grassy plain is in a far better position than a race horse. It is free and must use its wits to survive whereas a race horse is likely to live a short life because it is no longer deemed a good runner and a race horse has no freedom or ability to determine its own fate.
"Theres no ideal world where animals can live happy lives. In the wild animals eat each other." _ I would say there is - it is anywhere left on this planet where there are no humans. In such an area more species of animal and plant live better and longer lives and the dangers are from other predatory species and that's about it. Mnay animals are designed to live long lives but that they do not is usually down to people!
Well there's certainly very complex philosophical and religious issues involved in regard to our relationship with nature, the planet and with the animals. The extent to which human behavior itself is a product of nature or a matter of freewill (choice) and therefore could be regarded as "alien" to nature and the planet is a matter of debate and personal belief. but it has never been proved one way or the other.One can't really apply moral and ethical judgments to our relationship to and treatment of animals if such human behaviors are themselves a product of nature, any more than one could regard a predatory animal as "evil" because it kills it's prey to survive or even for sport, animals sometimes kill simply because they feel like it, e.g cats often like to torment their prey and appear to enjoy this activity, so we give them a ball of string to play with and call them cute.So generally when it comes to animal cruelty and animal rights I can't say I have particularly strong views one way or the other I think there's unnecessary cruelty, but i can't say I am totally against Fox hunting, wearing fur and I certainly eat meat and love a juicy medium rare steak on occasion. I don't make heavy moral or ethical judgments on those things because I tend to believe Human behavior is to some extent a matter of biological instinct. So if one were to believe than man is created by God or simply a product of nature I don't see how one could condemn any animal for doing the things that God intended or is a product of the natural order and I think this applies to human behavior to a large degree. There's nothing wrong with having dominion over nature if that's what nature intended although I think we could manage things better than we do.Generally I think some of these animal rights extremists are totally out of touch with reality, and of course you also get these crackpot genosidalists who would rather see a human population kull so that nature can recover from the effects of mankind. But I don't think that's the answer. But at the end of the day genosidalism and animal rights extremism are born of the same basic ideology, the idea that mankind is "alien" to nature and a blight in the Earth. It's a way of looking at things I suppose and it takes all sorts to make a world and a democracy but I don't go a long with those ideas.
Amanda, for whatever reason I have spent more of my "quality" time with animals and plants than humans, and continue to do so living with a cat now, so I can't speak for the other animal extremists or animal lovers but only from my own viewpoint. I would say that the Biblical idea of "do unto others..." should be extended to animals too and I had to look this straight in the face many years ago on the film set of Rebecca's Daughters! It was in the early hours and dark and cold and the idea was that some of us actors were supposed to keep sheep against a wall whilst a driver of a horse and trap had an argument with a person in charge of a toll-gate. Sheep didn't want to be there, actors and extras didn't want to be there and the director Karl Francis wasn't happy with the takes so we had to keep redoing it. I learnt something - that sheep do not necessarily follow the biggest or the rams. I don't know how they work it out but I do know these sheep followed a big ewe. If she went they all bolted - it was a signal she gave. I started to look at her closely and it was like some sort of mental thing that I said to her that I would no longer eat her kind. It was because I knew I could never kill such a beautiful animal and the next day I quit eating meat! I have slipped for various reasons since but have not deliberately eaten lamb and feel guilty about eating meat to degrees when I have because of what I saw in the sheep and a mental promise I made.
There are many people I respect a lot that I don't agree with on animals - the Swerdlows, for example would argue that it is fine to eat animals. It's not fine for me. My good friend King Arthur eats meat daily if he can. But I am 100% sure that animals don't want to be eaten, tortured or otherwise abused! I am 100% certain they all have feelings like I do and, which is why I think Tsarion's material is important about the origins of evil, because animals don't have destructive and self destructive urges unless they have been harmed by humans. So I find that what is wrong is in humans be it from alien DNA, demons, reptilians or whatever. The antilife species is us! The species that knowingly does wrong is us! If you want to go where no humans have gone or go you will find more species of animals and plants and if you go where people go the numbers of other life forms drop, in some places by a staggering amount! Humans are the killer and destroyer species and I see it all the time.
I used to watch it with horror as a child too. Other children thought nothing of tormenting and killing small animals - eg boys in Fairwater delighted in throwing knives at great crested newts they had put on the grass. If you were to try and stop this they beat you up!
Of course, I have seen countless animals killing others and seen my cats play with what they have caught but I do not see anything wrong with that because they know no better and it is part of their makeup. It is how they are made, it is their programme, it is their survival and pleasure in life. If an animal like a cat plays with an mouse it caught and killed it makes no big impact on the survival of mice but what humans do makes a massive impact quickly and on not one but often on many forms of life!
I watched sadly some men here cutting down a tree by where I live. In the evening all the birds that lived there had nowhere to go anymore and many flew around making alarm cries. There were in total about 50 birds rendered homeless and with nowhere to feed or nest. Bats too that lived there now gone! One tree, one day, a few men and a whole environment and life support for many animals destroyed!
In humans I see that we have a choice over our actions and a sense of what is "good" or "bad" that comes from a combination of personal feeling and constructed by society. It is "knowledge of good and evil" but at the same time I see that if any being is ignorant of what it is doing then how can it be judged as good or bad? Thus everything is permitted and I think that everything is forgiven too! There is nothing else that can be done!
Steve, this is really right on. I think the way we treat animals reveals who we really are, and if you look at how we treat them right now it doesn't say anything very good about us. I'm glad the Olympic games are over. I know I'm in the minority with this opinion, but I find it more and more to be kind of an abusive freak show. The part that bothers me the most is the young female gymnasts. Those girls are so exploited, their coaches are often quite sadistic, they often develop eating disorders or sustain serious injuries that haunt them for life. The use of performance enhancing drugs is becoming a standard part of sports in general, and I find the attitude about them hypocritical. They push the drugs on these athletes--they almost have to take them to be competitive--but then when they are caught they shame them individually and put them in prison even though everyone knows the practice has become institutional.
God, I could go on and on but you've already said it all. Thanks.
Yes, Pam, there's as much drug abuse in sport as in the rock music world it seems! Thanks for your response!
Re how we treat animals I have thought and said before that is it any wonder we have alien abductions going on when we do much worse to billions of sentient beings of our planet daily? If the greys are experimenting on us it is nothing in comparison with all the torture inflicted on animals in the name of science and research, not forgetting that it makes loads of money!
You're onto something with the alien reference I think. I remember when the film "Independence Day" came out--there's a scene in there where Bill Pullman is playing the President of the U.S. and he is looking at this alien we've captured, and this scientist says something to him like, "They are like locusts. They move from planet to planet devouring all the resources and leaving empty dead husks!" I said, "Oh my god, they're us!"
But seriously, that is one theory about it--that the aliens are us. That we have a 'dual identity'. This resonates with me, it just kind of feels correct, although I have no proof that it is or anything. They could be us in the future, us in the past, us in a parallel life. However it sorts out, we certainly share some characteristics.
CS Lewis, who is one of my favourite writers ever, examines this in his books Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra (Voyage to Venus) and That Hideous Strength, in which in the first book set on Earth and Mars, evil men from Earth go to the Red Planet causing death to the hrossa friendly and living in balance with Martian nature beings. It is explained by Oyarsa (spiritual leader of all life forms on Mars) that Earth is called the Silent Planet because the rest of the solar system no longer knows what goes on there. Its spiritual guardian/archangel became "bent" and had influenced the humans there to be bent also.
One of the evil Earth men who made the spacecraft that got them to Mars plans to do what you are talking about, Pam. He plans to take from the other planets and destroy life on them. He says that humans are superior to other life and that some humans are superior to others. He wanted gold from Mars and has been taking it had started killing by shooting the hrossa.
I read these books years ago and loved them then and recently decided I needed to get them again. I ordered the trilogy and am nearly finished on book one when by synchronicity a friend of mine who posts as Saint of Circumstance has blogged Nasa photos of timber and trees and a lake on Mars. In Out of the Silent Planet on Malacandra (Mars) there are huge forests and seas.
It was as if it was confirming what I was reading.
Michael Tsarion lists CS Lewis as a recommended author. Lewis' Narnia books were a milestone in my life. I rejected church religious teachings until I read them and they made sense to me. It's all in them - the struggle between good and evil, humans, good animals, other non-human beings, heroes and villains and The Last Battle.
I have never read Lewis, but I should. Everyone I know just loves him. Now for sure I will have to do it. I wish the bank would just fire me already so I would have more time to read. Earning money feels like a such a waste of time. I do things I hate to get the money, the money goes away, then I have to go get more money. Lately I feel like a rat on a wheel and I've been seriously considering just boycotting normality for alwhile. I will definitely track down the book, it sounds great.
Great Hub Interesting Comments.
Pam, I am in the same mess and seriously about to make my situation better or worse depending on your viewpoint - I just found that you don't need Spanish to get a job as a teacher's assistant to teach English and if I got this I would have a "proper" job but even less time than I have now!
Yes, the Lewis trilogy is amazing! There are beings on Mars he calls Eldila that the humans can't see because they are on a higher frequency but the other Martian beings - the Hrossa and Sorns and Pfifltriggi can. Of the three Earthmen, the not so bad human who is called Ransom and who was taken their as a captive learns to hear and see the Eldil and Oyarsa. He spends a lot of time living with the Hrossa but he is torn between wanting to be with humans even though he knows how bad they are and the Martian alien beings who are good.
Thanks, Sixtyorso!
I can sure understand this capsiacin problem. Although I enjoy eating chilies, I know that raw peppers applied to my face is definately hurtful. Just seems that doing such to enhance performance reveals some disregard of common decency.
Thanks, Budwood! Peppers rubbed into my skin would definitely hurt me too!
I am an up and coming event rider and have a lovely talented athlete(my up and coming Olympic event horse) whom I call my high maintenance sports car. Human athletes endure pain,torn muscles,tension and fatigue with a demanding training routine as does the demands of our counter parts(our equine athletes-and YES they are considered athletes as they are systematically trained under the ultimate care,comfort,training and feeding schedules of each individual athlete. Yes we as human athletes do need from time to time ointments to help our muscles calm from the strain we put them through during training-as do our Equine companions.I do use a product that contains 0.003% of Capsaicin as a pain-relief and soothing muscle stimulant.It is NOT painful(I rub the liniment on FULL strength with my BARE HANDS with no adverse effects) my horse thoroughly enjoys it,he is able to retract his tense mucles and relax and better able to perform at his peak day in and day out-NO HARM WHATSOEVER-ALL YOU ANIMAL ACTIVISTS HAVE GOT TO GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT AND ACTUALLY INTERVIEW THE PEOPLE AND EQUINES INVOLVED BEFORE MAKING ASSUMPTIONS ON THEIR CARE-THIS THOROUGHLY DISGUSTS ME!!!
You have the choice of whether you wish to take part in sport but the animal doesn't!
If it is for pain relief, as you state, then it means that the animal is in pain so in other words it has been hurt by horse racing or training. You don't need pain relief if not in pain! Why should the horse have "tense muscles" because of what you require it to do? Your comments have done nothing to show that I am wrong about horse racing being an abuse of these amimals.
And finally if capsaicin is so harmless why is it banned?
An excellent Hub article Bard. My experience of being around competitive horse people is that many can be competitive to the point of being cruel. In such yards it is obviously the winning that is all important. I've met caring horse people of course, but most of those are not competitive, they either keep horses for the love of them or are involved in rescue. Their only objective is to give a horse the best life possible and treat injuries and illness with rest, good food, kindness and veterinary treatment if necesssary. Enhancing a horse's performance by use of stimulants that could be harmful or painful is selfish, extreme and not in the best interests of the animal.
Thank you for sharing your experiences, Maria!
I am very aware that not all people who have horses for their own personal gain are so uncaring and are responsible for the lives of these animals well after the event ! However from the beautiful race or events horse, to the pony once ridden by a child, but given up because the child has grown too big - thrown away like toy and along comes another larger one to take it's place ! One only has to see the horses and ponies which are sent to 'market' and then to slaughter, to understand what a selfish industry events which involve horses are ! Yes, we in the animal welfare field know all too well and it is time that the horse racing industry and others, became responsible for these animals who have more often than not - put a great deal of money in their pockets and brought them personal fame !
Horse and Pony Rescue Facilities are full of some of the luckier ones they have been able to purchase them from the markets - so please don't anyone go on about how caring this industry is - they care as long as in their eyes, they are still doing a service for them !!
My suggestion to those in the business of using horses for events or racing, make an appointment to follow some of these horses from market to slaughter ( which includes the horrific live transportation of horses outside the uk and into Europe for slaughter ) and then come back to us here and let us know how you feel then !
And as far as our friend who asked above as to how many people they have p____ed off here, probably no one as we are well used to this closed minded heartless attitude towards animals and I would suggest to this person to read criminal case files because animal abuse and crimes against people go hand in hand so you see, it is very important that animal cruelty be taken VERY seriously because animal cruelty is the grass roots of this social disease that is spreading more and more !
Thank you for your excellent response, Mary Alice, and telling it like it is!
I have horses but I don't compete simply because I think it encourages abuse of the animals. (Competing against one self is a better measure of advancement of skill too) Having said that I've done a tiny bit of research into the drugs that are banned. Most of the info I've recieved from a vet was that the drugs are banned so that there is no unfair advantage. As with capsasian. It's a medication used to ease muscle pain. Anyone that's been to the gym and done some amount of work will know that one can get sore from using said muscles. Anyone with a hotblooded horse knows that these horses LOVE the work and get depressed when NOT worked. (That's not to say that the cold bloods don't love their work as well.) But, to take this news article and fly to the horse racing industry is a HUGE leap. And these were not all racing horses either(in the video). Which makes me suspect the author/creator of pushing past the limits of simple logic. I saw what I'd term accidents on the video which in no way equal abuse as well. I'd like to agree with alot of what you have to say about the horse industry but it's just not possible when you push past fact into fiction. Especially when with just a few minutes reading your could have facts to back up an opinion and be a credible witness to REAL abuse issues. They are certainly out there. Why fudge the facts when a little work would give you a sturdy leg to stand on? I don't have an answer to the problem of horse competions. I wish I did. It would be fun for horse and human to get together under less stressful guidlines to 'showoff'. And I kid you not, horses LOVE to show off and they can be VERY competitive in nature. Don't ever think that most horses don't love to go into competition. That's why we have so many. Strength, fitness and competition is part of the horse's biology.
The great teachers teach students how to educate and think for themselves.
Thank you for posting your feedback on this!
I suppose wherever there is a competition and no matter what it is, someone is going to cheat. Poor horses, all rubbed down with hot-pepperiness! How insane can we get?
Hi Patty! Thanks for posting! Human competitiveness in races using animals is a far cry from animals running and playing because they choose to is one way I can see it.
there is a difference between horse racing and show jumping. they are not called jockeys in show jumping but riders. yes horse racing is extremely cruel and i have seen horrific injuries. show jumping doesnt have such a high death rate, in fact it is extremely rare as the jumps knock down unlike racing. both are atill making money out of horses though.
Thanks for your feedback, Anne!
Just seen this feed as I am doing a paper on capsaicin abuse so thought I would just say this...
Capsaicin binds to the vanilloid receptors (pain receptors)so it hypersensitises the legs meaning that they hurt and if they just brush a pole it hurts like hell ... so it improves performance because it causes great pain making the horse ensure it clears the fence. Put it this way - it's like wrapping the poles in barbed wire. If you go on the NOAH site you will also see that it isn't a registered product for the horse so should never be used in the horse.
It can be an analgesic (pain killer) if used for a long time and through different administration routes - but isn't used that way in the horse as there are registered pain killers that are for use in horses.
The fact that some people are arguing saying it is fine when they have no idea what it is or does is preposterous and they must have a superiority complex if they think they can relevantly input their opinion on a subject they have no knowledge of.
Thank you for this excellent feedback that confirms that those saying it doesn't cause any problem are wrong!
Christoph Reilly Level 2 Commenter 3 years ago
Such a shame! Thanks for the info.