Atlantic City, NJ – The Steel Pier Association has announced their plans to bring a cruel spectacle back to the United States in the summer of 2012. Horse diving, where horses are ran up a 40-60 foot high ramp, and are forced to dive head first into the water below, has been decried by animal welfare organizations as cruel since the very first show in the 1880′s. Horses are typically jumped with a rider on their back, usually a young girl.
The Steel Pier Association is planning a $100 million dollar improvement to the Steel Pier over the next three years which will be featuring, according to their February 4th, 2012 press release, “new thrill-seeking rides; a new food court and arcade area; a nightclub, museum and retail entertainment space; and a 2000-seat ballroom. Also featured will be an amphitheater with acrobatic acts as well as the iconic diving horse act.”
In addition to the inherent cruelty to the horses, the riders who participate in the dive are regularly injured and killed. In 1907, 18 year old Oscar Smith died when his dive went wrong. Most famously, Sonora Carver became blinded when the horse she was riding, Red Lips, lost his balance and dove straight down. Sonora hit the water from 40′ in the air with her eyes wide open, rupturing blood vessels in her eyes, causing permanent blindness. Riders averaged one broken bone a year.
Tawnee Preisner of Horse Plus Humane Society, stated “This exploitation of horses must not be allowed to happen. Horses naturally do not choose to become submerged in water. Horses are very shy about getting water on their face. When horses are forced to jump into water from such heights, the impact is similar to hitting concrete. I am appalled that there are those willing to bring back the embarrassing past cruelty of animals for human ‘enjoyment’ as a way to earn a profit.”
A petition that has already begun circulating that is calling on the Steel Pier Association and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to put an immediate halt to the plans to create the horse diving show, and made the following plea to petitioners:
Since the late 1970′s the practice of training horses to jump off of a 40 foot platform into a pool of water has gone the way of many other dangerous animal acts … they faded into an embarrassing history. Forcing animals to engage in unnatural activities and behaviours became unacceptable as more and more people took up the call of animal welfare and either stopped attending these types of events or spoke out against them.
This Summer will see 2012 usher in the return of horse diving in Atlantic City, sponsored by the Steel Pier Associates. Promoted as a “family entertainment” the organizers plan to once again train horses to leap off of a 40 foot platform into a pool of water for nothing more than the amusement of their spectators and to make profit off of animal exploitation.
It is not natural for a horse to engage in this type of activity, and even under the most controlled circumstances injury to the horses may not appear immediately, but rather accumulate over time, affecting their long term health and comfort.
Horses are not built to sustain a 40 foot drop into water, they are not naturally compelled to engage in activities like this and only through training, coercion and bribery can they be made to engage in horse diving.
The Steel Pier Associates are putting profits before animal welfare in an attempt to bring an inhumane and exploitive spectator sport back from the dead, and must immediately stop their plans to once again engage in a historically abusive and exploitive practice.
No horse in its natural environment would ever choose to make a 40 foot jump into a pool of water for the enjoyment of anyone, and any horse with a rider on its back that does so, is being forced to do so against its will.
Animal advocates interested in voicing their opinion on the topic are being asked to sign the ongoing petition by clicking here which contains information on the sponsors and supporters of the Steel Pier Association.
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