Two dead at Aintree already and we haven’t had the main event

[BL0B]

Horrible pictures of the horse with the broken back and now another one has gone. Both put down. Stop this barbaric sport

Ummmm yes it would!
There are many many sports where people die or suffer catastrophic injury including the Olympics!

Owning a cat or dog is cruel when you actually analyse it fully. Most are pack animals but live in solitary confinement. Unnatural diets and exercise regimes etc because of owner convenience. A lot of animals become sick/ become terminally ill etc because of domestication or plain ignorance but its just swept under the carpet.....

Racing is brutal and should definitely be banned. Let human athletes race and leap over hurdles, but leave animals out of it. "The Races" would have a whole other vibe about them if the 'contestants' who raced for money in front of baying crowds wore shorts and singlets.

The fences have already been reduced in height, did nothing to reduce the number of fatalities - in fact, several experts have suggested that reducing the height has actually made it more dangerous, because the horses go over the fences faster.

Please tell me that you understand consent??

If these were children or low IQ adults being held against their will and forced to do these sports, then you may have a point but it’s not.

They are choosing to though, see also boxing.

After seeing a picture of Gold Dancer yesterday, just after the fall, I didn't place a National bet and I never will again. I come from a racing mad family but morally, steeplechase at least is not supportable. I'm sorry it took me so long to realise.

There were plenty of riderless horses before they reduced the fence height.

I often think that when I see poor dogs being dragged round everywhere, in human spaces which can't be good for them eg packed shopping centres, noisy cafes etc.

Thanks, I am aware they have already reduced the heights a bit.

Agree totally with OhFukyNell. What's on your plate for dinner tonight? No racehorse will be suspended upside down from its feet and plunged into boiling hot electrified water before having its throat slit... Racing is despicable and visible to judgment, i would stop it this very second if i could. But the silent misery that is the meat industry is much worse and utilised willingly.

They have reduced the numbers of riders, the qualifying ability, the way the horses are introduced and start. All manner of things. But too many die. I suspect they need to reduce the numbers even more and raise the qualifying ability even more.

It's disgusting and should be stopped. Hopefully we will look back at this in 20 years and be horrified. Unfortunately it is a sport for the elite so it is allowed. Greyhound racing isn't and that's probably why it was rightly banned (although not yet in Ireland ) I'm disgusted at all my relatives placing bets, oh to be completely uncaring and oblivious.

Although there is a lot of cruelty, these animals are domesticated and have adapted to live as pets.

A chihuahua is not going to be able to live out in the wild, hunting for food and protecting itself from predators (a chihuahua is probably the wrong example for this).

Owning a domesticated animal is not intentional cruelty.

But when people put dogs in a pit and use them for fighting, purely for entertainment/money then that is intentional cruelty.

Anything that involves being intentionally cruel, needs to be banned.
Then we can focus on the things that are unintentionally cruel.

You can be against multiple different things you know?

I am against the sex trafficking of adult women and I started a thread about it a couple years ago but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about the sex trafficking of children.

Just because you don’t support 1 thing, doesn’t mean you automatically support other things.

Agree. Our daft, uber affectionate, 3 legged tailess rescue Staffie who had been locked in a house without food prior to us having him would have lasted about 10 minutes 'in the wild'. I don't think (being owned by) a domesticated animal is of it self bad, there are many other aspects around breeding and treatment to concentrate on. Dogs have lived alongside us for most of history.

Thats a weird take, plenty of horses die in flat racing too, perhaps fewer in dramatic crashes, obviously none involving fences of course, but many come off the track broken down, are shipped home and then die as a result of that injury - some won't make it out of the course stables alive. You just don't see it.

More jump horses go on to live to old age and a useful post-racing retirement than flat racers because flat racers start much much younger, long before they are mature and are hammered before their bones are fused and joints properly formed.

I agree @Errolwasahero, what I'd like to do is propose an alternative sweepstake for the people who currently take part in the GN one at work (without ruffling the feathers of colleagues who enjoy the annual tradition of the GB one).

Thanks for that information i will not be going to them either then.

am not knowledgeable on racing.

Really? Where did you get this stat?

Why not...treat it a bit like 'the Captain goes down with his ship'?

So if a horse dies, or has to be euthanised, then the jockey and / or owner is treated the same way.

Am I right in thinking that the jocky kept riding the horse even though it was injured?? Surely the rider will have known the horse's back was broken?

This is horrifying.

Of course, but you wouldn't protest against child sex trafficking whilst using trafficked women for sex also....

He honestly may not have known, there will be a lot of debate about that, but it doesn't make it any better ultimately.

My late husband always said he'd start watching the day the jockey picked up the horse and carried it.

Blood money. Shameful.