Hopefully by now most of you are familiar with the name Dr. Robert Cook. However, here is some background information.
A few years ago we were protesting in front of Saratoga, and a professional photographer, friendly to our cause, took pictures of us. When she told them she was going in to take pictures of the customers, Nicole asked if she would like to bring a pair of horse heads and all the accessories that go with them. She created the powerful images below. When I first looked at this, I saw abuse; I saw sadness. But who am I, just an activist, right? That’s why I asked Dr. Nicholas Dodman, a world-renowned animal behaviorist who sits on our advisory board, to write a statement about these photos. He had a better idea.
Dr. Dodman contacted a colleague of his at Tufts University, the aforementioned Dr. Cook. Dr. Cook had spent most of his professional career, spanning decades, researching, teaching and writing about the ears, nose and throat of horses. It doesn’t get much more expert than that. When we first spoke, Dr. Cook, understandably, was a little reluctant to put his name to an animal rights organization, but in the end I was able to assure him that all I was looking for was his informed opinion about what these horses were (are) experiencing. He would write this devastating statement in bits. Here are some highlights:
“All these racehorses will run their upcoming race with pain in the bit…the stated purpose of which is to put pressure on the bars of the mouth, the jawbone.
“The horse is a nose-breathing animal and cannot breathe through the mouth. In the wild it walks with a closed mouth, lips sealed… a piece breaks the lip seal, allowing air into the mouth and unlocking the soft palate, which is now blocking the airway.
“Because their lungs are repeatedly bruised and quickly become waterlogged… some horses can experience severe chest pain and a terrifying feeling of drowning. Any of them can die from so-called exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage.
“In short, all of these horses will experience varying degrees of choking.
“The physical and emotional magnitude of bit use is difficult to overestimate. The obvious purpose of causing pain is bad enough, but the unintended consequence of asphyxiation is reminiscent of the method’s similarity to that of waterboarding.
“In my opinion, a bitten rein is a whip by another name; an unrecognized lung-damaging device that, during extreme physical exertion, inevitably causes pain, suffocation and premature exhaustion.”
Take a moment to process all of this. “Drowning.” “Suffocation.” “Suffocation.” “Waterboarding.” An expert’s words, not mine.
I’m revisiting all of this because (besides the obvious) Dr. Cook unfortunately passed away last August. I have found his obituary particularly significant. It opened thus:
“Dr. William Robert “Bob” Cook, FRCVS, PhD – scientist, artist, gentleman – died on August 25, 2025, surrounded by his family. He was 94.
“Bob was a pioneer in the field of equine medicine, whose career challenged thousands of years of horse training tradition by proving that bits caused pain, choking and the behavioral problems they were designed to solve. A veterinary iconoclast who fought for decades to ‘untie the horse,’ his research revealed that bit-free riding eliminated conflict behavior…. His final article will be soon published.”
His work on pieces at the very top. I had Dr. I can never thank Cook enough for his contributions – for his voice. Horses had no better friend.
Related
#Cook #Mistakes #horse #racing