Chinese officials are having to shift their security focus to an unexpected event for the 2008 Olympics: the equestrian ones. Officials found what they believe is a poison dart shooting gun buried just in front of the starting gate at a Hong Kong race track. The device had twelve tubes that could be filled with poison darts which would evidently be shot up into horses at the start of a race.
I’m not quite sure if the intention is to kill or just to harm, but it would have to be some fast acting poison to affect the horses during the race. Officials believe that the device was put into the ground by local gambling syndicates that were into criminal activity. This is low though. I can understand trying to rig a race to earn money, but killing or injuring horses to do so? That’s pretty damn low.
So now the Chinese security officials are having to go the extra mile to secure the Olympic equine events. I don’t even know if you can bet on the horse events in the Olympics. For the sake of gambling addicts everywhere, I hope you can’t. There can’t be anyone who knows enough about the events to handicap them and the place bets. This would lead me to believe that the horses at the Olympics would be safe from any poison dart machines. The horses who have to race at the race track between now and then however, they might have a few more concerns.
