LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. –  It's safe to say horse racing as an industry is under intense scrutiny.

Activist April Montgomery, who’s at Los Alamitos attending the California Horse Racing Board’s monthly meeting, thinks the sport needs to be shut down.

“Every race track in the country, there are death statistics. And these are horrific. These are actually horses that are snapping their bones,” said Montgomery.

Montgomery was a horse racing fan but four years ago saw a breakdown at Santa Anita that changed her perspective entirely.

“The horse broke down. It just dropped out of nowhere. It had snapped its sesamoid bones. And it threw me into a depression,” said Montgomery.

A cluster of 30 deaths during Santa Anita’s winter/spring meet caused protests around treatment of horses and put the industry in the national spotlight. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB-469 in June to further regulate the safety of the industry.

But since then at least 20 horses have died across the state in training or racing. There have been four deaths this summer at Los Alamitos, but the 41 deaths in the 2017-2018 season are actually down from 56 in 2016-2017.

The alarming trend of horse deaths at racetracks though -- nearly 10 a week at American tracks in 2018 -- has activists like Montgomery calling for California to ban horse racing altogether by 2022. Activists argue that racing horses is inhumane.

“These horses are being bred and trained at a young age. They’re dying at a young age. They’re collapsing now more than ever. And we want to bring this to light to the public,” Montgomery said.

For now all she can do is bring awareness during the meeting’s public comments. And the $100 billion industry that horse racing is nationally could mean she’s in for a long battle with the industry.

“We are not going to back down. We are not going to remain silent. This is not going to be another year of excuses,” she said.

The so-called sport of kings hangs in the balance.