VANCOUVER, June 11, 2025 – The Vancouver Humane Society (VHS) is sounding the alarm following the recent suspected heat-exhausted death of a horse named Gem Dancer at Vancouver’s Hastings racecourse.
B.C.’s Gaming & Policy Enforcement branch confirmed via email that on June 8, 2025, Gem Dancer began showing signs of distress while being led off the track following the race and soon collapsed. Despite efforts to cool the horse down, and after being in distress for approximately 2 minutes, Gem Dancer became unresponsive and was pronounced dead.
“This horse was literally run to their own death for the sake of public entertainment,” said VHS Campaign Director, Emily Pickett. “It’s incredibly irresponsible to race horses in the midst of a heat warning. Gem Dancer’s senseless death demonstrates how horses in the racing industry are exploited for profit, pushed beyond their limit and raced to the point of injury and death.”
Gem Dancer’s death marks the second known horse death at Hastings racecourse this year. On April 13th, just weeks before the start of the 2025 racing season, a 3-year old horse named Wynn Magic suffered a compound leg fracture during a timed workout and was subsequently euthanized.
The VHS is deeply concerned that the 2025 race season will continue to see more tragic and avoidable injuries and deaths, pointing to the four horse fatalities at Hastings in 2024 and eight in 2023.
The B.C. Gaming & Policy Enforcement Branch confirmed via email that the racing-related fatality rate at Hastings racecourse in 2024 was 1.78 per thousand starts. This is markedly higher than the 2024 industry average of 1.11 across U.S. and Canadian tracks that report to the Equine Injury Database, and almost double the 0.90 fatality rate at tracks regulated by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA).
The VHS continues to highlight welfare concerns within the industry. The use of stressful and aversive training methods, reliance on painful tools like whips and bits, and breeding practices that prioritize speed over skeletal strength, have no place in modern society. Even if horses do not die from heat exhaustion or a being euthanized from a broken leg, horses deemed no longer profitable at the end of their short careers may be sent to auction and ultimately slaughtered.
The organization is urging the public to pledge not to attend horse races and is reiterating calls for decision-makers to invest in alternative community events – ones that bring people together without putting animals at risk.
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SOURCE Vancouver Humane Society
For more information, contact Emily Pickett: (604) 416-2901, emily@vancouverhumanesociety.bc.ca