IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i5p1706-d324878.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Thoroughbred Racehorse Welfare through the Lens of ‘Social License to Operate—With an Emphasis on a U.S. Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Camie Heleski

    (Department of Animal and Food Sciences and UK Ag Equine Programs, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA)

  • C. Jill Stowe

    (Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA)

  • Julie Fiedler

    (Central Queensland University, Norman Gardens, Queensland 4701, Australia)

  • Michael L. Peterson

    (Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA)

  • Colleen Brady

    (Department of Agricultural Sciences Education and Communication, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA)

  • Carissa Wickens

    (Department of Animal Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA)

  • James N. MacLeod

    (Department of Veterinary Science, Gluck Equine Research Center, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA)

Abstract

This review addresses the question of whether Thoroughbred horse racing is sustainable in the context of current social values. A recently acknowledged framework, known as ‘Social License to Operate’ (SLO), provides us with a lens through which to view and assess racehorse welfare. In multiple surveys of the general public, the horse owning public, and university students, the primary topics of concern regarding Thoroughbred racing show considerable concordance: concern about catastrophic injuries—particularly as related to track surfaces, concern over the racing of two-year-olds, whip use by jockeys, drug/medication policies, and aftercare opportunities for retired Thoroughbred racehorses. Legitimacy of an industry, consent from industry stakeholders, and trust between the community players, are all essential to have and maintain SLO. In the current era of 24/7 global media access, and the proliferation of social media providing an interactive platform for all interested parties, a dramatic change has occurred in commentary related to racehorse welfare concerns. The situation at Santa Anita (California, USA) from late December 2018 through mid-November 2019 demonstrated just how tenuous the SLO for horse racing is. This article will provide a brief review of what ‘Social License to Operate’ is, along with a brief literature review of five of the areas of primary concern voiced by stakeholders.

Suggested Citation

  • Camie Heleski & C. Jill Stowe & Julie Fiedler & Michael L. Peterson & Colleen Brady & Carissa Wickens & James N. MacLeod, 2020. "Thoroughbred Racehorse Welfare through the Lens of ‘Social License to Operate—With an Emphasis on a U.S. Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-23, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:5:p:1706-:d:324878
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/5/1706/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/5/1706/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Morrison, 2014. "The Social License," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-37072-3.
    2. Mercer-Mapstone, Lucy & Rifkin, Will & Moffat, Kieren & Louis, Winnifred, 2017. "Conceptualising the role of dialogue in social licence to operate," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 137-146.
    3. Constantino Stavros & Matthew D. Meng & Kate Westberg & Francis Farrelly, 2014. "Understanding fan motivation for interacting on social media," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 455-469, October.
    4. David Evans & Paul McGreevy, 2011. "An Investigation of Racing Performance and Whip Use by Jockeys in Thoroughbred Races," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(1), pages 1-5, January.
    5. John Morrison, 2014. "The social license," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: The Social License, chapter 0, pages 12-28, Palgrave Macmillan.
    6. Juho Hamari & Mimmi Sjöklint & Antti Ukkonen, 2016. "The sharing economy: Why people participate in collaborative consumption," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 67(9), pages 2047-2059, September.
    7. Marion Robert & C. Jill Stowe, 2016. "Ready to run: price determinants of thoroughbreds from 2 year olds in training sales," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(48), pages 4690-4697, October.
    8. Stavros, Constantino & Meng, Matthew D. & Westberg, Kate & Farrelly, Francis, 2014. "Understanding fan motivation for interacting on social media," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 455-469.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Næss, Hans Erik, 2017. "Authenticity matters: A digital ethnography of FIA World Rally Championship fan forums," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 105-113.
    2. Karol Król & Dariusz Zdonek, 2021. "Most Often Motivated by Social Media: The Who, the What, and the How Much—Experience from Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-20, October.
    3. Nicolas Scelles & Boris Helleu & Christophe Durand & Liliane Bonnal & Stephen Morrow, 2017. "Explaining the Number of Social Media Fans for North American and European Professional Sports Clubs with Determinants of Their Financial Value," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-19, November.
    4. Kharouf, Husni & Biscaia, Rui & Garcia-Perez, Alexeis & Hickman, Ellie, 2020. "Understanding online event experience: The importance of communication, engagement and interaction," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 735-746.
    5. Misani, Nicola, 2020. "Sustainability and Implicit Contracts," MPRA Paper 104963, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Adam C. Merkle & Catherine Hessick & Britton R. Leggett & Larry Goehrig & Kenneth O’Connor, 2020. "Exploring the components of brand equity amid declining ticket sales in Major League Baseball," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(3), pages 149-164, September.
    7. António Mateus & Luís Martins, 2021. "Building a mineral-based value chain in Europe: the balance between social acceptance and secure supply," Mineral Economics, Springer;Raw Materials Group (RMG);Luleå University of Technology, vol. 34(2), pages 239-261, July.
    8. Mohsen Behnam & Geoff Dickson & Vahid Delshab & Anna Gerke & Parvaneh Savari Nikou, 2023. "The moderating effect of fan engagement on the relationship between fan knowledge and fan co-creation in social media," Post-Print hal-03969039, HAL.
    9. Annamalai, Balamurugan & Yoshida, Masayuki & Varshney, Sanjeev & Pathak, Atul Arun & Venugopal, Pingali, 2021. "Social media content strategy for sport clubs to drive fan engagement," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    10. Stephens, Siân & Robinson, Bryan Michael Kenneth, 2021. "The social license to operate in the onshore wind energy industry: A comparative case study of Scotland and South Africa," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 148(PB).
    11. Kathryn Tomlinson, 2017. "Oil and gas companies and the management of social and environmental impacts and issues: The evolution of the industry's approach," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-22, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. Kathryn Tomlinson, 2017. "Oil and gas companies and the management of social and environmental impacts and issues: The evolution of the industry’s approach," WIDER Working Paper Series 022, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    13. Xinghua Wang & James J. Zhang & Guandong Song & Xia Wan, 2020. "Push and Pull Factors Influencing the Winter Sport Tourists in China: The Case of Leisure Skiers," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(2), pages 21582440209, June.
    14. Frederiksen, Tomas, 2018. "Corporate social responsibility, risk and development in the mining industry," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 495-505.
    15. Santiago, Ana Lúcia & Demajorovic, Jacques & Rossetto, Dennys Eduardo & Luke, Hanabeth, 2021. "Understanding the fundamentals of the Social Licence to Operate: Its evolution, current state of development and future avenues for research," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    16. Popp, Bastian & Woratschek, Herbert, 2016. "Introducing branded communities in sport for building strong brand relations in social media," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 183-197.
    17. Geert Demuijnck & Björn Fasterling, 2016. "The Social License to Operate," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(4), pages 675-685, July.
    18. Leeuwerik, R.N.C. & Rozemeijer, M.J.C. & van Leeuwen, J., 2021. "Conceptualizing the interaction of context, process and status in the Social License to operate: The case of marine diamond mining in Namibia," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    19. Brueckner, Martin & Eabrasu, Marian, 2018. "Pinning down the social license to operate (SLO): The problem of normative complexity," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 217-226.
    20. Kari L. J. Goold & Reynafe N. Aniga & Peter B. Gray, 2020. "Sports under Quarantine: A Case Study of Major League Baseball in 2020," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-14, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:5:p:1706-:d:324878. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.