Help USESR Stomp out the Omak Suicide Race!

• "The deadliest horse race in America", says Richard Huffman, director of advocacy at the animal rights group, PAWS.
• "It's what puts our town on the map", says Omak Mayor, Walt Smith.

The Omak Suicide Race takes place in Omak, Washington every year. Almost very race and its practice runs produce dead and injured horses. Since 1935, horses have dashed 120 feet to the edge of a cliff and sent at full speed over a 210 foot, 63 degree embankment, at the bottom of which they plunge into the cold, rocky waters of the Okanagon River. Promoters of the race brag that the steep embankment is "almost a vertical (straight up and down) slope". Once they land in the rocky river, the horses are whipped, kicked, yelled at an otherwise urged to go as fast as they can across the sharp, rocky riverbed so that they can be the first to cross the 100+ yards of cold, rocky water so that the rider stands a better chance of being the first to force the horse to "scramble up a dirt ramp" and charge a final 100 yards to reach the finish line, in order to be pronounced the winner of this cruel death-race.

The Suicide Race is part of the Omak Stampede, Omak's local rodeo. 16 horses have died in the race in the past 20 years. No statistics are kept for horses which die during practice or "training" runs.

Injuries, pain and death await equine competitors in the Omak Suicide Race, but that's the reason for the name of the race. PAWS spokesperson, Libby Wilder states, "The very name implies that someone is going to die." Indeed, the race was created by a promoter to bring attendance to the rodeo after several other gimmicks failed to produce significant crowds resulting in significant income to the city of Omak and surrounding towns.

• "I think it's a tragedy, but it's part of the race", says the mayor. "They [human competitors] live with the knowledge that this can happen, and we’ve seen riders hurt and we’ve seen horses hurt and killed. But it's no different than a horse race. In my opinion, it's no worse than that."

Benjamin Shors, writing for the Spokesman Review in August of 2005, describes that year's race in his own words:

A rider near the back of the pack fell high on the hill, somersaulting down the 62 degree slope. From the lip, the hill draws like a funnel to the water's edge. As it narrows, the horses bunched together, throwing riders in a tumbling whir, leaving bodies lying prone on the riverbank and medics scrambling to attend. A horse flipped end-over-end, then staggered to its feet, riderless. On the riverbank, as medics carried out a stretcher for an injured rider, a security guard tried to stop people from taking photos. Police helped to disperse those who crowded around the fence to watch. Someone cut the floodlights, leaving the medics to tend the downed rider in the blackness at the edge of the river.

Suicide Race officials are eager to hide injuries from the press, which brings unwanted attention from animal rights and animal welfare activists, even if it means turning out the lights so that medics must try to perform life-saving measures in the dark. PAWS staffer, Will Anderson, accepted an award of $64,500.00 for alleged false arrest and loss of both a camera and the visual portion of videotape, after he was accosted by four deputies while documenting a fatal injury to a horse during the August 1996 running of the Omak Suicide Race. Okanogan County was ordered to pay Anderson $50,000.00. Former Omak Stampede director, Ted Huber, who allegedly threw Anderson's cameras into the river, was ordered to pay Anderson $12,500.00. The Omak Stampede itself was ordered to pay Anderson $2,000.00.

They must have learned their lesson because now we can view video of several races on the PAWS website. See our "sources" link at the bottom of this page.

Can this death race be justified? A select group which stands to gain financially from it attempt to do so. Go to the next page.

What Do You Think?

  Justification / Sources

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