That the Grand National should end

Those statistics ignore horses that survived their injury for 48 hours or more before being euthanized, and serious but-not-fatal injuries. I used to volunteer at a very small animal sanctuary that had a couple of ex race horses with brain injuries sustained in racing, I’d imagine that there are many, many more nationally.

And if we’re talking the GN specifically, the fatality rate is more than double the figure you posted. If you’d like to reduce the amount of racing-related deaths, surely banning races that have much higher fatality rates than the average would be a sensible place to start?

I feel cringe admitting this, but since we are on the topic - I outright refuse to date anyone who thinks horse or dog racing is acceptable!

That’s not what happened at all! Ferdinand was sold from America to Japan as a stallion and he stood there at stud for several years. His Japanese owners sent him to a slaughter house and there was rightly uproar. As a result a number of other horses were brought back from Japan and sale contracts were amended so that if a horse was no longer deemed “useful” he had to be offered back to his previous owner.

What do sweat shops in Bangladesh and anything else you dredge up have to do with horse racing?

Yes, it’s awful.

@DearAnt talk to a bloodstock insurer - someone whose very job is to quantify risk - there is little difference in premiums for an unraced 2yo turned out in a field and one that is in full training.

The fatality rate in British racing was 0.18% in 2023 from 18,630 individual runners, flat and jump. Can we improve on that, yes and we should, but don’t believe the people that try to tell you the sport is inherently dangerous.

Remember 'Ferdinand' a famous winner who was sent to slaughter for pet food when he could no longer race. Dreadful.

Totally agree. I can’t watch it as I find it vile that those poor horses are put through that for entertainment.

I’m not an animal person as such - I’ve never owned a pet, I don’t coo over random dogs and I can’t stand next doors cat as it shits all over my flower beds and I find it ridiculous that so many people treat their dogs as if they are human…. Yet these people are happy to watch and get involved in that race. Awful.

TidalShore there’s a difference between why things are done and there’s also a difference between passively allowing harm and actively allowing harm.

With why things are done - cats are allowed out because they want to be out (usually) vs horses that want to run but don’t necessarily want to race. Your horse can run without being raced.

Passive harm is accepting there are risks but allowing the act anyway - cats being out fits this as there is a risk that they could be hit by a car but it’s not why you let them out. You could refuse to let them out but there a lot of cats that would be very unhappy with this. Horses can be exercised without being raced. Choosing to race them is choosing to actively put them in harm’s way. I don’t know any cat owner that would do this, and you’ve already accepted that no dog owner would.

Nah, too much money in it

I think it will be made safer though - fewer horses, safer jumps, which is good

It's absolutely grotesque

@montysma1
kids in Bangladeshi sweat shops making footballs.
Not a choice! FFS

Anyway - I love a horse but can't get het up about all this when thousands of people are dying in wars, from starvation and famine etc. Sorry OP to derail your thread.

The rationale that some horses get injured and have to be euthanized anyway therefore it’s fine to subject them to the additional risk of racing, is pretty ridiculous.

By that logic you might as well bring back dog fighting because some dogs fight anyway.

Because humans have a choice to take part in sport and horses do t?

Fair enough dogs are generally not put into particularly risky situations, but how many cats are left to wander and get killed or injured on roads everyday? Right or wrong people will take whatever risk they seem acceptable with their animals, it's not exclusive to horses.

Millions of people doing something doesn’t make it okay.

Millions of people actually. Racing is the second most attended spectator sport in the country with nearly 5 million people going to the races in 2023.

https://racecourseassociation.co.uk/annual-racecourse-attendance-figures-hold-firm-with-4-83m-racegoers/

The scummiest “sport” going.

It is appalling. I can't believe it is still going.
We are a country that does not treat animals with cruelty but still accept this as 'sport'

Hundreds of thousands of people every year, year in year out.

My whole family place bets, my partners family, most of our friends even place bets on the GN when they don’t bet any other time of year.

You do understand that almost every horse that breaks a leg - from million pound racehorse to child’s pony in a field - will need to be humanely destroyed?

It’s not something exclusive to racing as some people try to claim “They shoot them because they can’t make money anymore”.

The basic biology of a horse means leg fractures, unless they are very small, are incredibly difficult and almost impossible to fix. You can’t stick a horse’s leg in a cast and tell it not to move for 6 weeks. Even if the original fracture heals, the additional stress placed on the other three limbs during recovery means they often develop complications like laminitis (where the structures inside the hoof start to come apart).

Look up the case of Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro- he suffered a leg fracture and no expense was spared by his owners on multiple surgeries and treatments, but within months of the injury he had to be put down because of the inevitable complications. Arguably it would have been kinder to put him down at the time of the injury rather than put him through the surgeries and doubtless pain.

The whataboutery is so weird to me. I have horsey family members and horsey acquaintances. None have ever spoken about horses the way anybody does about other pets. Dog people and cat people would never accept the risks that horse people do with their animals, including horse people who own other pets. The disconnect is so strange.

There’s no comparison to rugby players either. They choose to enter that sport. Horses don’t.

I’m not a vegan (because I know that will come up) but I’m not ok with animals being used as entertainment. If humans want to be entertainment then that’s fine but leave animals out of it if their deaths aren’t necessary.

Apparently so. Comes up on every single thread dealing with any aspect of animal suffering. ‘Oh? You don’t wear mink and enjoy badger baiting? Well, you’d better be vegan or you have no right to have an opinion.’

My view: better to do what you can than nothing at all.

Do they make royalty jump over things and shoot them if they break their leg?

Humans choose to participate.

There's a pretty clear difference between a human and an animal, obviously.

Although the labour issues are another question, sweat shops of course not acceptable.