Check out my article, "Horse racing: The hidden cruelty revealed", which was published in The Scavenger. It is about the racehorse deaths that the racing industry tries to hide. I was largely inspired by the more visible - and continuing - deaths in jumps racing. Six horses have now died on track in Victoria and South Australia since the commencement of this year's jumps racing seasons.----------
Horse racing: The hidden cruelty revealed
14 May 2011
Jumps
racing has been cropping up in the news after a series of track deaths in the
UK and Australia. But while track deaths are problematic for racing’s image,
the fate of countless other racehorses is hidden from the public, writes
Susannah Waters.
While
racegoers clutched betting slips and peered toward the finish line that sunny
afternoon, horses Ornais and Dooneys Gate lay away from their gaze, broken and
dying behind swiftly assembled screens.
The
former Grand National contenders were concealed from view after suffering horrific
injuries in the notoriously dangerous event, held on a long course covering 30 challenging jump fences. But the odds were stacked heavily against
all 40 starting horses: only 19 were able to finish the gruelling race.
April
marked the commencement of the UK’s annual Aintree race meeting, featuring the
Grand National event, and the beginning of the controversial jumps racing seasons
in two Australian states.
Jumps racing has long been steeped in controversy owing
to its inordinately high mortality rate. This brand of racing, which requires thoroughbred
horses to leap over a succession of fences, is estimated to be up to 20 times more fatal than flat horse racing.
The
fences claimed victims early in the Victorian and South Australian jumps
seasons, where five horses died after suffering traumatic on-track
injuries within a four-week period. Australian jumps racing was plunged into
further scandal when a horse leapt into a crowd during one of Victoria’s showpiece
events, resulting in seven spectators being hospitalised.
Ward
Young, Communications Manager for the Coalition
for the Protection of Racehorses
in Victoria, is hopeful that the recent incidents will be a catalyst for a
final ban on jumps racing in Australia.
“While
the racing industry and government can put on a brave face, the continuing
deaths in jumps racing will wear them very thin and a tipping point will be
reached where they decide ‘enough is enough’”, he tells The Scavenger.
Witnessing
a horse’s death during a jumps event two years ago had a profound impact on
Young, and strengthened his commitment to organise against jumps racing.
Although
the sizable on-track body count has provoked a sustained campaign to end jumps racing in Australia, the
high fatalities are simply acknowledged – and by all appearances, accepted – as
inherent to jumps within racing circles.
Rodney
Rae, president of Australian Jumping Racing, recently conceded to an Australian newspaper that "there hasn't been a jumps racing
season where we haven't had a fatality". A shocking 13 horses were
killed on
Australian jumps tracks in 2009.
It is reported that three
horses die on average at the three-day UK Aintree meeting each year. Bolstered by
outrage at the recent deaths, a call to ban Aintree’s
Grand National event has garnered extensive support.
More
race horse deaths
But jumps racing does not exist in isolation, and
should be viewed firmly within the context of horse racing as a whole. While
more prevalent, racehorse deaths are not exclusive to jumps racing events – nor
to the racecourse.
Since
2007, UK group Animal Aid has been recording all British on-track racehorse
deaths in all types of racing. The group’s Race
Horse Death Watch
indicates that 68 thoroughbreds died on British racecourses as a result of
racing injuries over the first four months of this year.
While
it does not factor in the deaths of racehorses away from the track, it provides
a rare insight into the perilous nature of horse racing. Countless causes of
death are listed, including descriptions such as
“injured hind leg – destroyed”, “fell – broke neck” and “collapsed and died
after race”.
Late
last year, it was reported by the U.S. Jockey Club that
approximately 1,500 thoroughbreds died due to injury on U.S. racecourses in the
preceding two-year period.
However, independent research conducted in 2008 revealed that many
deaths went unreported by racing organisations within the country, and indicated
a staggering over three horse deaths per day on U.S. racecourses.
While
these deaths highlight the dangers of racing events, they are in fact just the
tip of the iceberg. Track deaths are a more visible display of horse racing’s
often more covert exploitation of horses.
The
screens which obscured the view of the horses killed at the Grand National are
somewhat emblematic of racing’s ever-present dilemma: they demonstrate that
lurking beyond its carefully constructed image of glamour and prestige, it is an industry with much
to hide.
Horses slaughtered for
human consumption and pet food
A
rarely publicised and unpalatable fact is that many ex-racehorses, and many horses
reared for the purposes of racing, end up on dinner tables in Europe and Japan. Countless others
are condemned to the pet food industry.
Young
says that in the past, prominent figures in the racing industry denied ex-racehorses
were sent to slaughter. He says that now it is “indisputable” and a “standard
practice” of the industry.
Far
from retiring on idyllic green pastures, many horses are sold to slaughterhouses
and knackeries once
they are deemed to have exhausted their usefulness within racing.
“Retired”
may evoke images of old and unsteady horses, but those discarded by the racing
industry and sold to slaughter in Australia can be as young as two years old. A 2006 British report claimed that the majority of
racehorses there are killed before their fifth birthdays. The normal life
expectancy of a thoroughbred is around 30 years of age.
Official
government figures state that up to 40,000 “failed
or retired sport horses” and “feral” horses are killed yearly in
Australia, specifically for the lucrative horse meat trade. However a horse
meat industry insider last year said that 50,000 – 70,000 horses are slaughtered annually.
Australia
is a large exporter of horse meat to overseas markets, and while it is
difficult to ascertain precise numbers, evidence suggests that failed and
former racehorses may comprise as many as 60% of all horses slaughtered in this industry.
There
are several reasons why so many thoroughbreds are prematurely cast off from the
racing industry. A central factor is the sheer overabundance of horses being
bred for racing.
As
the world’s largest breeder of thoroughbreds, there are around 1.3 million thoroughbred horses in the U.S., with
up to 50,000 foals born there every year.
Meanwhile, Australia is placed as the second largest thoroughbred breeder with over
17,000 foals born annually – a significant number
considering the much smaller human population here.
With
masses of potential racehorses at the racing industry’s disposal, horses can be
replaced quickly once they cease turning a profit.
Animal
Aid claims that only 40% of foals bred for racing in the UK and Ireland actually go
on to race. Australian statistics are similar.
Blinded by dollar signs
Much
of the problem for racehorses stems from the way they are viewed within the
racing industry. The industry promotes a culture where horses are regarded as
expendable products and commodities – to be bought, sold, and ultimately
discarded.
A
racehorse’s value is tied directly to monetary considerations. These horses are
generally not valued on their own terms, as sentient individuals. They are
instead prized as profit-generating units of labour.
Racehorses’
status as replaceable commodities is entrenched in the racing industry. The
language frequently used by members of the racing fraternity to refer to
racehorses affirms this.
Comments
likening the danger of horse racing to the risks taken by humans in sporting
activities are common, and suggestive of a cavalier attitude towards horse
deaths.
South Australian Thoroughbred Racing chairwoman
Frances Nelson recently described horse racing as a “competitive sport” in which “accidents will happen”.
She added: "No one likes to see that happen,
but in any competitive sport you will have a level of risk. The same occurs
with human beings - look at footballers, look at athletes".
Her statement echoes that of David McCammon, whose horse Killyglen ran – and fell, rendering him unable to complete the race –
in the recent Grand National.
“In
every other sport there are dangers, just take motorcycling and car racing. You
know the risk you are taking with the horses but they have been bred for racing”,
McCammon said.
The
owner of Ornais, the horse who died after his neck was broken in the same event,
referred to Ornais’ death as “unfortunate”,
saying “we all take chances in our life”.
The
parallels between horses’ involvement in racing and human participation in
sports is, in reality, extremely tenuous.
The
fundamental difference is the issue of consent. While jockeys and motorsport
racers can provide informed consent for their participation, this cannot
logically be claimed for horses.
Some
contend that horses “love” to race, and that if they did not wish to, they
would simply refuse to leave the starting gate - as horses sometimes do. This
argument not only confuses horses’ participation with a willingness to race,
but also ignores the fact that racehorses are extensively trained to be
subordinate and obey commands.
This
enforced subservience is an essential feature of the racing industry.
Comments
made by the trainer for Dooneys Gate, the horse who died after breaking his
back at the Grand National, display a corresponding attitude. Willie Mullins referred to the deceased horse as having been “a good servant to us”.
Away
from the pomp of racing events, a racehorse’s everyday life can involve the
monotony of hours of confinement and a vulnerability to health conditions such
as gastric ulcers, which affects up to 93% of Australian
racehorses. This affliction is largely caused by stress and an unnatural diet.
Young
believes that aspects of cruelty hidden from the
public are
fundamental to the preservation of racing and its glossy façade.
“Most
people will never witness horses who are kept in their racing stables the size
of a standard bedroom for 22 hours a day, or see the terrible sight of
ex-racehorses who are no longer profitable waiting to receive a bullet in the
head at a knackery”, he says.
The
relentless pursuit to protect its image is symptomatic of an industry with a
lot at stake: over $14.3 billion is poured into racing by the
Australian public annually, while in excess of £12 billion is wagered by the British public. More
than £250 million was gambled on 2011 Grand National
day alone.
Money
is also often diverted into racing by governments. In Australia, the Victorian
government has pledged to inject $2 million into jumps racing over the next four
years.
But
beyond the alluring sparkle of big money, exists an immense stable of misery:
where many of the once-glorified winners, the fleetingly-feted champions, the old
odds-on favourites, the outmoded outsiders, and the former 100-to-ones, are
consigned.
Fancy
stage names now cast aside, they are reduced to a number and forgotten, while
the conveyor belt of fresh horses incites a new wave of cash-coloured dreams.
Visit
the Coalition for the
Protection of Racehorses (Australia) and Animal Aid’s Horse
Racing campaign in the UK.
Images from
top: Horse in knackery awaiting slaughter, courtesy of Coalition for the Protection of
Racehorses; Java Star, courtesy of Uproar;
Horses killed for meat; and Ledgers Dream, both courtesy of Coalition for the Protection of
Racehorses.
