…while millions watch, either at Aintree or on their TVs at home, cheering if the horse they put their money on won, or sulking if they didn’t.I continue to wonder how the people involved in horse racing can honestly claim to care about the animals. And shame on the BBC and RSPCA for continuing to support this. Nothing about horse racing is about the animals or their welfare. They are pawns in the entertainment industry, dressed up in pretty colours for people to enjoy betting and a day of drinking and merriment.
Yet while the ladies and gentlemen in the grandstand continued to enjoy their drinks, horses were being treated and put down on the racecourse.
A horse of mine was put down because he was kicked by another horse and it broke his leg. Completely sliced off about 6 inches above his hoof. I heard the shot that killed him. That was about 13 years ago, and I can still remember it. I wonder if anyone at Aintree (or any of the other countless racecourses where horses are killed) heard or will remember it?
Ignorance is bliss. It must be so nice to go for a day at the races, not for one second thinking about all the horses that are bred into that world, never make it, and end up as dog meat or glue. It must be nice not to think of the retired racehorses who are not cared about anymore. Only the ones who don’t win big of course.
I’ll support horse racing when it’s the jockeys who are getting beaten around a 4-mile course at full speed, expected to jump hedges bigger than them.
I put this post on my tumblr site with a link to this Animal Aid article.
From the Animal Aid article, you can learn about their campaign and also sign the petition to ban the Grand National. Animal Aid has also been keeping a list of horses killed and injured on racecourses around the UK since 2007.
