Protesters close down horse racing
Animal rights protesters, intent on permanently shutting down Golden Gate Fields, the Bay Area’s only horse racing track, successfully stopped an afternoon of racing Thursday but inadvertently caused the closure of a vaccination clinic in the track’s parking lot for about three hours as well.
Four members of Direct Action Everywhere, a global animal rights group, climbed over a fence and onto the backstretch of the track, where they chained their arms together inside PVC tubes and ignited purple smoke flares to announce their presence. Another 15 to 20 protesters, waving bright “Shut down Golden Gate Fields” signs, gathered outside the Gilman Street entrance to the track in Albany. The track has been holding races without spectators allowed.
Although the bulk of the protesters were far from a vaccination clinic in a sprawling Golden Gate Fields parking lot off Buchanan Street on the north end of the track in Albany, police and Berkeley health officials temporarily stopped giving shots for about three hours because of the protest.
“We estimate that 200 people lost the chance to be vaccinated today,” said Matthai Kuruvila, a Berkeley spokesperson. “We’re working to get them all rescheduled.”
Berkeley police officers on the scene told The Chronicle that the clinic was closed out of caution after the smoke devices were set off because they didn’t know if they had other devices that might endanger people at the clinic. They also said the protesters may have entered the track through the clinic and they feared that more could follow.
The protesters chained and locked themselves together in a diamond shape on the track shortly after noon. Their presence halted the start of the first race at 12:45 p.m. and six other races that had been scheduled through 4 p.m.
Samantha Faye, a Direct Action spokesperson, said the group’s intent was to call attention to the track and protest the deaths of five horses either racing or training since the start of the year and 27 during 2020, according to the California Horse Racing Board. She said the group intentionally steered the public part of the protest away from the vaccination clinic, that the smoke devices were safe that there was no need to temporarily shut the vaccine clinic down.
“Today our goal was to ensure that no horses had to race, and to spark the discussion about closing Golden Gate Fields,” said Almira Tanner, lead organizer for Direct Action Everywhere.
Golden Gate Fields never officially announced the cancellation of the day of racing, and failed to respond to multiple requests for comment. But the track did post two messages on Twitter saying it supported the right to protest but that the demonstration shouldn’t have disrupted the vaccination clinic.
“We respectfully suggest to the activists that there is a better way to have this conversation and air their concerns,” the track tweeted. “We welcome the opportunity to have this discussion in the appropriate format.”
Shortly before 7 p.m., the four protesters on the track were unchained, cited and released, according to Faye.