Horse Racing Ireland Awards Demonstration

national | animal rights | press release Monday December 03, 2018 13:14 by Bernie Wright - Alliance for Animal Rights

End horse exploitation and death.

PRESS RELEASE: HORSECRACING IRELAND AWARDS DEMONSTRATION.
STOP RACING HORSES TO DEATH, END ALL Equine RACING , Horses deserve the right to live free of exhaustive training, pain and death.
The horse racing industry advertises itself as “glamorous,” or the Sport of Kings. However in reality, exploitation, welfare violations, cruelty, and premature deaths are an inherent and unavoidable part of this industry which is based on greed. A lot of effort is put in to covering up the true face of the industry. Dr. Holly Cheever, an award winning veterinary surgeon and expert on animal abuse prevention noted “cruelty is an inherent part of the horse racing industry.”
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• Three times as many horses are being bred now opposed to 40 years ago. Many defective foals end up being slaughtered for meat while those chosen for racing suffer a high level of fatal injuries and stress-related injuries such as gastric ulcers and bleeding lungs. Breed mares are kept almost constantly pregnant in order to prevent those in the business with new horses to exploit on the tracks or sell.
• Whips used in racing have a padded area at the end but they also have a long, hard handle that comes into physical contact with the horse – not only on the quarters but also down the shoulder and neck. Independent research from Australia examined 15 races frame-by-frame to study in detail what happens when a horse is whipped. The results were alarming. Seventy-five per cent of whip strikes made contact with the side of the stomach (flanks); 83 per cent left visible indentations and, most shocking of all, while the modern whip has a padded end section, in 64 per cent of all whip strikes that were studied, the hard, unpadded shaft made contact with the horse.
Bernie Wright, PRESS OFFICER. AFAR. Phone 0872651720
• I enclose the number of equine fatalities at racecourses and point to points.
The following table outlines the runners both at racecourses and point to points and the fatalities which occurred. Data prior to 2012 was collected in a different fashion and may not be verifiable
Year Racecourse runners
Fatalities
Season Point to Point
runners Fatalities

2017 29,936 88 2017/2018 5,087 28
2016 28,931 83 2016/2017 5,609 32
2015 27,048 89 2015/2016 5,483 36
2014 27,476 99 2014/2015 6,266 30
2013 29,399 121 2013/2014 5,562 42
2012 28,881 82 2012/2013 6,147 49