Photographs of a dead horse at a landfill in West Virginia distributed by an animal-rights organization opposed to racing have created yet another public-relations crisis for a sport already reeling from intense criticism from some quarters over the treatment of its athletes. One of the photos, which was distributed by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an organization seeking to ban racing and other industries that use animals commercially, shows a horse lying at the edge of a large but relatively isolated pile of solid debris at the landfill. The other appears to show the horse being offloaded from the back of a truck that does not resemble a sanitation truck or other commercial truck built to transport animal remains. The photos have triggered an outcry both inside and outside of racing, despite serious questions regarding the ultimate fate of the animal pictured and the circumstances that led up to the horse being disposed in that area of the landfill. The county sheriff’s office has started an investigation into the incident, according to reports, but the sheriff’s office has not returned a phone call from Daily Racing Form. Racing officials in West Virginia have acknowledged that the horse in the photo appears to be Bridget Moloney, who was euthanized at Mountaineer Racetrack after suffering a catastrophic injury in a race on Sept. 25. PETA claims that the photos, which do not contain any images of the persons involved yet were taken in close proximity to the horse and during the offloading process, were generated “on or around” Sept. 27 by a person it described as a “whistleblower.” It distributed the photos on Wednesday, nearly three weeks after the photos were reportedly taken. The photos also appear to put on stark display an uncomfortable truth for those inside and outside of the racing industry: Dead horse carcasses, and other livestock and pet carcasses, are routinely transported to landfills that have specialized areas to handle animal remains, or they are disposed of by private contractors. In the case of racehorses that were euthanized, regulations require that the carcasses be either incinerated or disposed of at animal-disposal areas of landfills because the chemicals that are used to euthanize the horses can be toxic and cannot be allowed to leach into groundwater. Those regulations also prohibit the rendering of any racehorse carcasses in a way that would allow the meat to enter the food chain. Jami Poole, the president of the Mountaineer HBPA, said late on Friday afternoon that the organization had determined that the truck that transported the horse to the landfill deposited the horse in the wrong location. The landfill, Poole said, has an animal-disposal area in which holes are already dug to take large-animal carcasses, and that there are bulldozers at those areas to immediately bury the animal. Poole said that a person standing at the gate at the landfill directed the driver to the location where the horse was photographed. He said that a person with a camera phone was at the location when the truck arrived. “This has never happened before,” Poole said. “Normally if a horse dies, the truck arrives the next morning to pick the horse up, it is taken to the landfill, and there’s a hole and a bulldozer waiting. It gets buried immediately, on the spot. This didn’t happen in this case. I just feel terrible for the horse and the owners and trainer and all the people who have been put in such a terrible position by this.” Joe Moore, the executive director of the West Virginia Racing Commission, said he could not comment on specifics of the incident due to the ongoing investigation, but he repeated that Mountaineer’s own procedures had not been followed. In response to a question, Moore said that the commission does not presently have any rules or regulations regarding the proper disposal of horse carcasses. In a statement released Thursday, the racing commission said that Bridget Moloney was euthanized by a state vet following the Sept. 25 race. The statement said that the commission is “reviewing and investigating the circumstances surrounding the recent incident” and also said that “Mountaineer Park has an arrangement for the disposal of horse remains, and the specific manner in which the disposal is to occur does not appear to have been followed in this case.” Jim Colvin, Mountaineer’s director of racing operations, did not respond to a message requesting information about the track’s disposal procedures. States with necropsy programs usually dispose of horse remains through incineration after the necropsy is complete, according to multiple racing officials. States that do not have necropsy programs routinely contract with commercial disposal companies or local sanitation firms that use the animal-disposal areas of authorized landfills or other disposal means, the racing officials said. The disposal of horse carcasses is lightly regulated in most states, if at all, according to racing officials, and racing commissions have generally allowed racetracks to enter into private contracts for the removal and disposal of carcasses. However, states with necropsy programs, which include California, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, and New York, avoid any need for regulations considering those programs have disposal protocols in line with state procedures. Earlier this year, the West Virginia legislature authorized the funding for a necropsy program, but the racing commission has not yet put the program in place. “Going forward, as we are able to implement a plan to utilize those funds, deceased horses will be transported to qualified necropsy facilities,” the commission said in its statement. “Thereafter, the facility will be responsible for the humane and respectful disposition of the remains.” Alan Foreman, the general counsel of the National Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, which has affiliates throughout the mid-Atlantic and Northeast, including West Virginia, noted that an action plan endorsed by a consortium of tracks, horsemen, and racing commissions in the region requires the implementation of necropsy programs. “There isn’t just one standard for the industry, and that’s a problem,” Foreman said, referring to disposal protocols. “I guess you could say that a good thing about this incident is that the West Virginia Racing Commission has taken notice, and it needs to get that necropsy program in place.” One of the photos of the dead horse is taken from a covered position in what appears to be the back of a moving truck or commercial dumpster, after the horse has been offloaded. The other is taken from near the rear of the truck that appears to be offloading the animal. Neither photo shows the driver of the offloading truck, and no other persons are shown in the photos. In responses to questions, PETA said that the organization sent a representative to the landfill the day after the photos were taken but the representative was denied entrance to the grounds. “The staff at the landfill would not permit this person to go down into the dump zone where the horse was photographed and by that time there had already been loads of dirt and garbage piled in that area,” according to the response from PETA’s executive director, Kathy Guillermo. “So we don’t know if the dead horse was buried under that or moved.” Asked why there are no photographs of people unloading the horse or of the driver of the truck, Guillermo said that the whistleblower “sent us only the two photos and the whistleblower did not tell us there were any more photos.” She also said that it was the organization’s understanding that there was, in fact, a section of the landfill for animal carcasses. The Brooke County Solid Waste Authority, which oversees the landfill, did not respond to messages seeking information on whether the site has an animal-disposal area. A person who answered the phone at the landfill immediately hung up after the caller identified himself as a reporter. The website for the manager of the landfill and other waste facilities, the company J.P. Mascaro & Sons, says that it operates facilities that accept “agricultural waste” and “compost waste,” which could refer to animal disposal.