horse racing sport or animal cruelty

Horse Racing - A Sport or Animal Cruelty?

I must admit I've never taken much interest in horse racing. I have

been to the races once many years ago, but it's not generally

something I think about.

Until Saturday that is when this feedback was left on the website. I

won't use the person's name only because I haven't checked with them

if they're happy for me to do so.

"The hitting of horses during horse races is archaic and barbaric. I

have found no reasonable argument for this continued abuse. It sends

out a bad message and is not part of a civilised society.With the

coming of the Animal Welfare Act surely things must change...won't it

be confusing for offenders who are prosecuted for cruelty, when

whipping horses can be seen daily on the BBC and Channel 4?The only

argument used is one of safety and can be countered by allowing the

carrying of the whip but not its abuse, by hitting.I have a petition

which I hope to present to the Jockey Club/BHB et al:

"http://www.webpetitions.com/cgi-bin/print_petition.cgi?99500830"

This petition needs to be publicised in order to give the public a

chance to lend their voice and any help with publicising it would

gratefully appreciated.

We don't hit any other animals in this way, why horses? They are just

as sensitive to pain as dogs or cats. The implication made by hitting

horses is that it is okay and the corollary of that is that abuse and

neglect of equines is commonplace. We need to work on this shameful

state of affairs and I believe if we start on this high profile

example we are making a high profile statement.

Violence towards equines is ingrained in our society because of a

relationship that is anachronistic and needs to change.

It is the 21st Century and public opinion in this matter, if

marshalled, would go along way to making the world a better place for

us all.

Many thanks"

It causes a strange shift in your perception when someone questions

your view of an everyday event. Horse racing if not shown everyday is

regularly on the television and jockeys whip horses. That's what they

do. Now I'm sure if I walked to my local High Street tomorrow and

started whipping my dog, if I had one, someone would call the police.

I certainly wouldn't be cheered on by the Queen watching through a

pair of binoculars.

It is important that we don't justifying something because 'we've

always done it that way'. Our friend here isn't asking for racing to

be banned, only for the banning of the whip and I have to agree with

that.

Even as I was searching for the picture of the rather fine racehorse,

above, to illustrate this piece I found myself thinking is it

appropriate to include it in this context?

I have found a couple of other websites with more to say on this

subject horseracing in general.

Advocates for Animals and Animal Aid

It makes you think - Wildberry

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Horseracing

Animal Rights