So on a non-kinky note… some friends of mine having been planning a trip to the Races to wear glamorous hats, drink champagne and have a bit of a flutter… which I must admit has kinda turned me into Ms Preachy Mc-Rantington!
All sounds like harmless fun and a nice day out?
well not for the horses I thought I’d give people a little more information about the racing industry – because the marketers have done a fabulous job of making it all about hats and fun and not so much about animal cruelty. Most friends I’ve spoken too haven’t really know much about the cruelty apart from “it’s sad when they hit the poor horses” – which is really the *least* of their worries!
89% of the horses at Royal Randwick have ulcers
95% of racehorses have bleeding in their lungs
18,000 australian ex-racehorses are sent to the knackers every year
Just because you like hats shouldn’t mean you condone animal abuse…
I was surprised when I found out just how severe and ingrained the animal cruelty is in the racing industry… after all they are “valuable” and certainly look shiny.
Of course that’s only the very tip of the iceberg – for every million dollar winner there are 100s of horses who don’t make the grade and end up going through the horrible experience of the sale yards and finally the knackery. Plus of course it’s an “industry” so once a horse’s racing career is over – there’s no sentimentality around feeding something that’s worn-out… it ends up in a can of Pal.
The way race horses are trained, bred and stabled is also very cruel – from the battery farm way they’re kept in small stalls 23 hours a day, run on an empty stomachs which leads to deep bleeding ulcers to the possible use of performance enhancing drugs.
Then there’s the whole issue of 2year old racing – which is really just child abuse for foals – a horse isn’t skeletally mature until it’s at least 4 years old – which is usually the age a Show-jumper or dressage horse is broken in… so training and racing them at such a young age ends up with a lot of severe injuries and health problems – and again – they end up going through the sale yards…
If you’re interested then watch this video – but I’ll warn you that if you like horses it takes a strong stomach.