Should we really be surprised?

There has been a lot of media attention given to the death of Eight Belles in last weekend's Kentucky Derby and If your like me, I'm not sure exactly how to respond. PETA is crying for the jockey's head (not literally) saying he pushed the horse too far while many trainers and owners inside the sport claim that it is a freak accident and very sad. But really, should we be surprised that horses or greyhounds or any other animal's that we use for sport come up with injuries that are sometimes life-threatening. Think about it...we lose human athletes every soo often and these are people who can communicate with doctors about injuries or things that do not feel right. With animals, we are dealing with something that cannot complain if it wants to or yell at the coach when they are tired. Horses are trained to run and for that matter beaten and directed to run and block out everything else (including physical discomfort). Can you imagine an NBA player being whipped into shape so that when he was on the court he exerted all his energy because a timeout or a break wasn't even an option. I am not taking on side on whether horse racing should be outlawed or not, I myself don't know where I stand. But, I am not shocked like so many other people at the death of Eight Belles...and sadly, I will not be shocked when the next horse dies in the next few years.