Right: Cup favourite Admire Rakti's handlers and owners mourn the horse's death after the race.
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Arguments in favour of banning horse racing
1. Fatal injuries to horses occur on the track
Racing poses a significant risk of horse fatalities. The Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses (CPR) claims that in the last twelve months in Australia, 125 horses have been killed on Australian race tracks.
Horses are large and powerful animals with a sensitive and explosive flight response to perceived danger which puts them by nature at risk of injury and even death at any time whether they are racing or left alone in a paddock. In addition it is argued that racing is an inherently stressful activity for horses and thus one where they are at risk of death.
Commonly identified causes of sudden deaths include bleeding into the lungs – Exercise Induced Pulmonary Haemorrhage (EIPH) – and heart failure. The exertion of the races leads a large proportion of horses to bleed into their lungs and windpipe. A study carried out by the University of Melbourne found that 50% of race horses had blood in the windpipe, and 90% had blood deeper in the lungs.
The rate of sudden deaths on Victorian Thoroughbred racetracks over the past ten years is 0.06 per 1,000 flat race starts. This equates to one to two sudden deaths per year in Victoria.
The rate of limb injuries in flat racing resulting in euthanasia on Victorian race tracks over the same period is 0.4 per 1,000 starts.
In an article published in The Conversation on November 5, 2014, Chris Whitton, head of the Equine Centre and Associate Professor of Equine Medicine and Surgery at University of Melbourne has stated, ‘Many limb injuries in racehorses can heal with time or be repaired with surgery but recovery depends on the severity of the injury. Complex fractures, where stability of the limb is lost, may not be repairable because horses need to be able to bear full weight on all four limbs immediately following surgery and this can be difficult or impossible to achieve.’
2. Horse racing is cruel to horses
It has been claimed that even where the results are not the immediate death of the animal, horse racing is cruel to horses.
The exertion that is demanded of race horses often results in bleeding into the lungs. At its worst this can cause death, but even when less severe it indicates that the animal has been put under serious and disabling physical stress.
Animals Australia has noted that racehorses are fed a high concentrate diet (grains) during training, rather than extended grazing, which often leads to horses getting gastric ulcers. A study of racehorses at Randwick found that 89% had stomach ulcers, and many of the horses had deep, bleeding ulcers within 8 weeks of the commencement of their training.
Ward Young, the president of the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses (CPR), has stated, ‘Add in the use of the whip and the fact that a horse can be beaten an unlimited amount of times toward the end of a race, and then the glamour of racing doesn’t seem like what it’s advertised by the racing industry around Spring Carnival.’
In an article published in The Conversation on October 29, 2014, Paul McGreevy, Professor of Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare Science at the University of Sydney, stated ‘My analysis of high-speed videography shows that the padding [on whips] fails to protect horses in 64% of strikes. It also shows that 70% of whip strikes are delivered “backhand”, so are not counted under rules limiting the number of strikes.’
It has also been claimed that handicapping horses is inherently cruel as it puts their cardiac and respiratory systems under greater strain. In a comment published in Crikey on November 4, 2014, Ken Lambert stated, ‘The idea of handicapping is peculiarly Oz….lead in the saddlebags of the better performer to bring it back to the field, rather than matching performers on a WFA basis. In the case of the unfortunate Japanese horse, loading on top weight and running it two miles has killed it.’
Animals Australia also claims that many horses are raced prematurely as two year olds before they are physically able to sustain the strain. They also claim that being stalled individually means that many animals develop damaging nervous habits. Former police horse trainer, Scott Brodie, the retraining manager at the Racing NSW-backed NSW Thoroughbred Rehabilitation Trust, has claimed that all horses suffer from separation anxiety. ‘They are herd animals.’
3. Horse racing discards many animals that are then killed
It has been claimed many more horses die as a result of horse racing than those killed or injured on the track.
RSPCA Victoria President, Dr Hugh Wirth, has noted that the Australian race horse industry currently breeds some 15,000 potential racehorses a year. Animals Australia claims the figure is higher at 18,000 per year. This is many more than the industry requires and many more than are likely to be successful.
Dr Wirth has stated, ‘We are breeding lots and lots and lots of horses. Some of them fall by the wayside for things that should never happen and that causes wastage.’
Some of these horses that are either unsuccessful or surplus to requirements are rehomed; however, some are sold to knackeries, usually for pet food. Auctioneer John Moyle estimated in 2012, that some 20% of the horses he sold were bought for slaughter.
The Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses(CPR) has claimed that some 13,000 horses are put down annually, most at knackeries.
Federal and state authorities do not give out regular information on how many horses are ordinarily slaughtered for human and animal consumption across the country.
A federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry webpage, which was removed in late November, 2012, put the number at between 30,000 and 40,000 a year. However, a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation estimate suggests the figure was as high as 94,000 in 2011 alone. Critics state that many thousands of these slaughtered animals are rejects from the racing industry.
Young from CPR has stated, ‘The racing industry needs to realise by breeding these animals and by profiting from them while they're racing, they owe a responsibility to that animal to look after it for its entire life, not just its life while racing.
We believe that a superannuation fund, if you like, needs to be established, so part of the prize money that a horse earns and other horses earn is contributed to ensuring that horse doesn't go to slaughter when it can no longer earn money.’
CPR wants a mandatory retirement plan for former racehorses and has put a proposal to the Australian Racing Board to spend one per cent of its funds on such a plan. The proposal has been rejected.
4. Horse racing is hazardous for jockeys
It is claimed that horse racing is dangerous for jockeys as well as for the horses. In October two female jockeys died as a result of injuries sustained on the track. Caitlin Forrest who died in hospital after a four-horse fall at Murray Bridge, in South Australia; while, a day later Carly-Mae Pye’s life support was turned off after falling during a jump out at Callaghan Park in Queensland.
It has been estimated that in Australia there is about one fall for every 240 race rides, and one-third of those falls result in a substantive injury. The sport is considered to be one of the more dangerous occupations, stabilising at about 1.4 deaths per year nationally.
It has also been argued that risks to horses and risks to jockeys are related, in that where a horse falters, falls or breaks down the jockey is then very likely to be injured.
A recent study funded by the California Horse Racing Board identified catastrophic injury or sudden death of the horse as the most common reason for a jockey fall in Thoroughbred (29%) and Quarter Horse (44%) racing. About two-thirds of such falls result in injury of the jockey, and this proportion is significantly more than for jockey falls caused by other reasons.
It has also been claimed that the weight-control diets, saunas, enemas and other measures that jockeys use to reduce their weight have adverse health effects.
A 2010 study of jockeys conducted at the School of Health and Human Performance at Dublin City University concluded that the ‘chronically weight restricted lifestyle’ of riders ‘may convey both long and short-term health risks to jockeys’’ and represented “a major health and safety concern to the racing industry.’
5. The racing industry is primarily interested in profit
Critics claim that the primary purpose of the racing industry is to make money for those involved and that the horses are essentially a means to that end.
Bernard Keane, writing in Crikey on November 5, 2014, stated, ‘One suspects the racing industry loves horses in the same way the car racing industry loves motor vehicles?—?as splendid assets that can, with the right attention and control, make lots of money, but which are easily replaced if destroyed.’
The Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses (CPR) argues that the number of horses that are routinely slaughtered in Australia because they are not successful demonstrates that the industry is primarily concerned with profits. The CPR has stated, ‘It is a well known and accepted fact that failed and injured racehorses who no longer have the potential to return a profit have very little commercial value, and therefore are mostly discarded.’
Research conducted by CPR at Echuca Saleyards and Pakenham Saleyards indicates that between 75% and 85% of all racehorses (Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds) are bought by known kill buyers.
Ex-racehorses are also extremely cheap to purchase which means they can also be cheaply replaced. It is not uncommon for ex-racehorses to return to the saleyard only to be eventually bought by a kill buyer.
Black Caviar's trainer Peter Moody, who has claimed he is ‘an avid horse lover’, has subsequently admitted, ‘I do have a soft spot for some horses. But it is business and I can't afford to get too attached.’