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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

The grand national is cruel to horses

999 replies

McHappyPants2012 · 12/04/2012 15:20

Alot of the horses will be injured and whipped into going faster, it's also a long race course.

I can't believe people would bet on this event

OP posts:
AhsataN · 13/04/2012 23:57

it is sad but if you dont have the money to fix something not a lot you can do. ive had my 2 for 16 years they are my world. but if something should happen that i could not pay for i would have to make that decision.

SaggyOldClothCatPuss · 14/04/2012 00:09

Too right South. And having worked at Newmarket on race days last year, I can honestly say, that I have never seen a bigger bunch of mismatched, badly dressed, absolutely no taste, orange painted, plastered in bling from top to toe and wearing prozzie shoes nutters in my life. Ladies Day was an absolute eye opener! and the alcohol consumed!...Shock

montysma1 · 14/04/2012 00:28

The usual fuck wit horsey set trying to justify the unjustifiable.

Race horses do not live like kings, they lead short unnatural lives. Way too expensive to be allowed out in fields to do horse stuff.

Horses are not inherantly fragile, the species would have died out millenia ago in that case. Thoroughbreds though are chronically inbred, again due to the actions of the horsey fuckwit franternity. They are skeletally unsound, the hearts and lungs are to large for the small rib cage, the feet are too small............I could go on and on. Do you think its normal for healthy young animals to keel over and die with amazing regularity? Athletes somebody said? I wonder how many human athletes will just drop down dead during the olympics? It happens to these horses because chronic frailty is bred into them to get the perfect racing physiology.

Horses do not love to race, that is a human concept. they do not by nature run to the point of collapse and hurle themselves at impossible large obstacles. to suggest that they do is fatuous.

They run beause they are herd dwelling prey animals, and the safest thing to do is to stay with the herd when something is chasing them. They are bolting and panic stricken, they are being beaten. They are not fucking racing. Why do they do it? Again because as social animals , and bless them, not too bright, it is in their nature to be trainable and amenable.

Horses die in fields, therefore that justifies the risk of steeplechasing? What the fuck kind of argument is that? Children get hurt in gardens, so hey, I may as well buy mine a chain saw for christmas because they will get injured anyway right?

Horseracing over produces thousands of horses every year in the hope of prodcing a winner. That becomes less and less likely the more inbred they become. The failures, or the old or the injured do not go into happy retirement or new homes. do not imagine that they do or be told that they do. The country is over run with unwanted horses as it is, without bringing broken down race horses into the mix. Statistics show that every year 50% of horses that leave racing are "unaccounted for" a year later. Anyone who claims differently is lying, those are the facts.

If members of the public were to knowingly put their pet dogs into situations where they had a high risk of death or serious injury, they would be prosecuted. Instead by some bizarre reasoning, when it is done to horses, it is televised as an entertainment and we are told that the carnage is glorious.

Please inform yourselves about these horrors. Do not be patronised and sneered at by the so called horse LOVERS who seek to justify this, by suggesting that people who abhor this are just ignorant about horses.
I am not ignorant in the least about horses, but as a true horse lover I will not be told that brutality and cruelty is anything other than what it is.
Please please read the links below, they are horrible, but they are the reality.

www.horsedeathwatch.com/

www.animalaid.org.uk ? Home ? Media Centre ? Horse Racing news

AhsataN · 14/04/2012 00:40

thats the way come on a thread and insult people. if you dont like it dont watch it, dont bet on it!
i could get into many arguments about things but i cant be bothered.

AhsataN · 14/04/2012 00:43

people have come and voiced different opinions not insulted each other. so you come on and call people "fuckwits".

montysma1 · 14/04/2012 01:03

"people have come and voiced different opinions not insulted each other. so you come on and call people "fuckwits"."

Yes, I do. Because anyone who suggests that "horses get hurt in fields" justifies killing and maiming horses in the name of entertainment is a bit of a fuckwit. Its the most ridiculous think i,ve read today.

But yes, it was foolish of me. Because it allows you to ignore the actual issues and avoid engaging with hard uncomfortable facts. Just witter on about bad language instead, thats the crucial issue here.

fortyplus · 14/04/2012 01:36

montysma1 if you know anything about horses you'll know that a happy horse has its ears pricked forward whilst one in distress or fear will have them pointing backwards. So it's fairly easy to judge whether a horse is enjoying itself. I'm not trying to justify the Grand National by saying that - just pointing out that your argument doesn't stand up you fuckwit

catgirl1976 · 14/04/2012 08:10

The usual fuck wit horsey set trying to justify the unjustifiable.

The ususal people who don't know the first thing about horses coming on and getting hysterical about something they know nothing about. (Not everyone, but a fair few)

The GN has too many runners - I do think that. There is cruelty within racing but it is the exception not the standard. Racing itself is not cruel. Any cases of neglect, cruelty or mistreatement should be dealt with swiftly and harshly and I would love to see any cruelty removed from the sport with oweners / trainers guilty of it having their licences stripped and being subject to criminal charges.

But racing itself is not cruel. The vast majority of trainers / jockeys / owners are not cruel.

Flightty · 14/04/2012 08:56

and which way do its ears point when it's just broken its neck?

CaveMum · 14/04/2012 09:15

I'll say again, Animal Aid are an extremist organisation that refuse to engage in any dialogue. In many respects they are just like Fathers For Justice, employing shock tactics but no actual substance or ability to engage in grown up discussions.

The RSPCA and World Horse Welfare are just 2 of the many equine welfare groups that engage, discuss and monitor racing. They are not calling for it to banned, so that should tell you that they do not believe racing to be cruel.

Wheresmycaffeinedrip · 14/04/2012 09:19

:( flighty such a horrid thought but it's true, it is a real possibility :( and as fir not being cruel remind me next time I see someone forced to run til way beyond exhaustion with no option to quit and hit with a whip ( but no more than seven times cos that's just cruel [sarcastic emoticon] and made to jump obstructions so high they could seriously hurt themselves, not to call the police cos clearly it's acceptable Hmm :(

Flightty · 14/04/2012 09:38

I have read nothing by Animal Aid. I've no more reason to believe the views of an extremist organisation, or indeed one which isn't extremist but still has an agenda I don't fully understand, than I have to believe that the horses 'love it' as is stated on here and elsewhere by folk who choose to believe such.

I believe that it is wrong to use horses for entertainment in a way that puts them at risk of serious injury and death.

That's all. (not that the whole fucking farce of a circus around Aintree doesn't make me feel slightly sick, but that's missing the point)

You wouldn't put children through some sort of comparable obstacle course, simply because it's natural for children to want to run fast and climb over things. Not if it caused the deaths of a proportion of the children. Nor would you breed children specially for it.

But for horses people claim to 'love' it's somehow acceptable? Why?

catgirl1976 · 14/04/2012 09:47

Don't watch the olympics whatever you do caffeine

catgirl1976 · 14/04/2012 09:49

Why is it just Aintree you are bothered about flightty?

Flightty · 14/04/2012 09:50

Catgirl - no one else is in control of the athletes in the Olympics so I'm not sure why you think that's comparable. They choose to do it all by themselves.

Wheresmycaffeinedrip · 14/04/2012 09:50

I don't plan too.

Flightty · 14/04/2012 09:51

It isn't just Aintree I am bothered about, Catgirl.

catgirl1976 · 14/04/2012 09:53

Well the Olympic comment was tongue in cheeck obviously but at the Olympics the competitors will run to exhaustion, push themselves to the absolute limit and jump obstacles so high they could serioulsy hurt themselves. They may even die.

catgirl1976 · 14/04/2012 09:53

Oh - ok are you bothered by all racing then?

Flightty · 14/04/2012 09:54

However I think you'll find the GN is the biggest publicly celebrated horse race in the UK and thus, the circus is bigger and the problem more topically relevant.

Loads of people consider it 'a bit of family fun' and have no idea anyone gets hurt till they actually see a horse down. not everyone who places a bet, has a part in a sweepstake at work or whatever even watches the race. It's a cultural institution and as such I think requires some full on challenging in terms of what it actually is, and its consequences.

Wheresmycaffeinedrip · 14/04/2012 09:54

Sport was always meant to be fun and a way of keeping fit and healthy. When it gets to a point people get so desperate to win they inject or ingest god knows what or develop eating disorders to be thinner and there for " better" than everyone else then it's time to stop!!! IMO anyway :(

Flightty · 14/04/2012 09:55

catgirl1976 Sat 14-Apr-12 09:53:05
Well the Olympic comment was tongue in cheeck obviously but at the Olympics the competitors will run to exhaustion, push themselves to the absolute limit and jump obstacles so high they could serioulsy hurt themselves. They may even die.

Well observed.

Wheresmycaffeinedrip · 14/04/2012 09:56

Yeah flighty :) to alot of people it is just a bit of fun families choose a name and enjoy watching the race but it's true they really have no idea about the consequences for the horses and the cruelty involved :(

catgirl1976 · 14/04/2012 09:57

No more horses die because more people watch the race.

Flightty · 14/04/2012 09:59

No, I should think you're right about that.