just wondering what's everyone's opinions on this what with it starting this week.
It's awful that they shoot them if they break a leg :(
what about the actual racing if they don't get injured?
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just wondering what's everyone's opinions on this what with it starting this week.
It's awful that they shoot them if they break a leg :(
what about the actual racing if they don't get injured?
I suppose I just have the same opinion on it as I do with all confined animals.. although I do not deny that they are probably very well cared for and healthy. I disagree with the principle though. Would never go and watch a race myself. My parents went to one a few years ago and a horse buckled and was shot instantly. It's disgusting that such a beautiful creature with a whole lot of life ahead of it can just be written off like that. Surely there's a field/forest/sanctuary somewhere it could have enjoyed the rest of its days?!
Yes that's what I think, I'm sure there are places and people that would love to nurse them back to health. It's all down to money, they're no longer profitable to the owners so they get a new one.Quote:
Kat_90
It gives me the 'ump. Just more exploitation, although as Kat says the animals have a better deal than some.
I see Animal Aid are campaigning against it:
http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/NEWS/news_horse//2672//
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012...oycott-charity
Perhaps I'll put the Guardian link on my Facebook page, a lot of people seem to bet on it in office sweepstakes etc without thinking
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Don't forget that rescues are mostly self funded and with retired horses mostly they can't be re-homed. There is a limited capability of all rescues especially without financial & time support.
I think anyone in a 20 mile radius who supports AR should be there protesting against it - I know the Greyhound Group in Manchester are making good progress with their weekly peaceful protests outside the stadium. The bigger the crowd the more notice people will take!
It's animal exploitation. Need I say more?Quote:
Daffodil
Even before I went vegan and learned that people objected to horse-racing, it always made me uneasy. As a kid I thought that it can't be very nice for the horses, and I still think that now, with the added knowledge that nobody has the right to exploit/use/abuse animals.
Have you noticed tho that if the jockey falls off, then the horse carries on running, .... Do you think they enjoy it?
Maybe cos it's scared of all the crowds around it and is following all the other horses? It has also been taught with a whip to run and run, they know no better. Remember in the wild horses run for miles in herds, it is its instinct. Point is, it should be in the wild.
What do you expect the horse to do? Stop and check jockey OK??Quote:
Daffodil
I've never watched horse racing as it saddens me to see the animals exploited in such a way, also knowing their certain deaths aren't too far away because they are no longer valuable to humans.
Plus the training methods used and those horses who didn't make it to the track but saw their end far too early.
I like to see animals in the wild, not on a track. Thank you very much.
I obviously agree that it's terrible. I'd ad that horses are very fragile and just a broken leg is a major problem as they can't sit down for long periods of time without it causing harm, they spend most time standing usually. Given that, I think it's very wrong to make them compete in dangerous events just for entertainment.
Also the same 'sport' could be done on a bike with no need to endanger anyone else.
I bet if as many humans got killed in a sporting event as horses get killed in racing, the event would be banned as too dangerous.
The Grand National is a disgrace a few years ago i and a friend tried to raise peoples awareness of the cruelty involved by having pertions against it outside betting shops. It did not do any good most people saw nothing wrong with the race it is such a tradition. I put the radio on this morning and on 3 stations Radio Shropshire, Radio WM, and CFM they were taking about taking bets. The guy on Radio WM said he was going to encourage his son to place a bet this year I just hope that none of the horses are hurt too bad too much to hope for though i expect.
I hate horse racing. Jockeys whipping horses to run faster for their own prestigous status, and the amount of horses that are killed through injury not just on race day but during training as well, its barbaric.
Everyone in my office yesterday was doing the whole sweepstake thing, i just kept my mouth shut as i knew it'd do no good to try and 'enlighten' them.
It really winds me up that if people where talking about child abuse it would be considered normal to oppose it, but if anyone takes offence to animal abuse and stands up we are considered freaks or lunatics.Quote:
Purepsycho
Don't these horses 'enjoyed' today
R.I.P. TO YET MORE HORSES FROM THE AINTREE DEATH FESTIVAL
ACCORDING TO PETE 2012-04-14 Aintree Brought Down - Broke Leg - Destroyed
SYNCHRONISED (IRE) 2012-04-14 Aintree Fell - Broke Leg Running Loose - Destroyed
GOTTANY OS 2012-04-12 Aintree Broke Down injured - Destroyed
I live in liverpool and the city was mad busy over the last two days...it disgusts me as I think most people who came couldn't care less about horses...it's just a big show off ...tantastic girls wherever you go and business men in their expensive suits ...just wanted to go up to one of them and slap them in the face...
Apologies for another x-post from Facebook but:
Animal Aid asks interested people to vote in this poll. It's rather a tricksy one because there are separate options for banning the GN and banning all horse racing and I didn't notice the second until I'd already voted
http://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/sport/m...onal_1_1349323
Voted. Thanks, Harpy. Good to see the two most popular answers are to ban all horseracing and to ban the Grand National.
It's not offensive, it's the truth. I live between York racecourse and the centre of town and when the races are on in York, my street is a complete nightmare. (People throwing up before about 6pm, disgusting perverted men leering at anything with a pulse, etc...) The people who go to watch are vile and to be politically incorrect about it, they're just chavs in suits and stupid dresses who shouldn't be allowed to breed.Quote:
Firestorm
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It's so true. A smart Asda suit or a posh frock from TX Maxx will never be enough to cover up their personalities once they've had a few too many Lambrinis.Quote:
Firestorm
I turn into such a snob when I don't like someone.
Thanks Harpy, I've voted too.Quote:
harpy
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TBH I don't give a four X where they work or what they wear, and am obviously not personally affected by the crapping in bushes (:eek:), but honestly, how can people who profess to like horses support this? Also it seems to be an instance of the double standards that were being discussed on here a while back, because people here moan about bullfighting in Spain, but the difference between that and this is what, exactly? </rant>
^^I wish there was a like button here.
Discussion about this on the radio (Radio2, I think) yesterday afternoon.
Animal Aid had their racing 'expert' on and he did a pretty good job putting the case and demuddifying some intentionaly well muddified statistics.
The pro-racing side though; You could have filled a thousand "stupid things people say" topics within five minutes!
My personal favourite: The fact that horses keep running even if they've lost their riders shows how much horses love racing.
(Horse: "Feck you if you can't stay in the saddle shortie, I'll win this thing on my own if I have to ...")
Stats on one race track (Aintree, from memory) were quite harrowing; Something like 8 horses killed in the eight races there last season. One race this season and one horse killed during in it.
Makes you wonder why there are not as many butchers as there are bookies at some of these places.
Quote:
LouiseAbel
Only SOME of them Louise, sadly many of them are otherwise respectable and decent people.
I know this because my own father visited racecourses often and more often still bet on racing on the TV. To my knowledge he mostly wore overalls or old man trousers with white socks and seldom raided my mothers wardrobe !!:lol2:
During my very early childhood I was taken to Towcester race course on Saturdays (we live very near) regularly where my mother and father had a bet and I mostly sat around bored or stroking horses whenever I got a chance!
At about nine I was taken to the 'Point to Point' race in Towcester (an event strangely swarming with the hunting set). I thought it was all great fun sitting perched on the car roof peering out at the track until a horse fell and it was announced that it had been shot. I cried and shut myself in the car until home time. I refused to go again.
My father continued to visit tracks occasionally but always watched the Grand National on TV long into my adult years even after the point my mother refused to have anything to do with racing on the grounds that it had 'got cruel' while my dad continued to believe that the horses loved it.
What I do not understand..(but then it is just ONE more meat eater double standard in a whole bucket full anyway :cry:)
AND did not even understand at nine is how my father could enjoy such a sport when he was such a gentle and kind man and an animal lover. I could never understand how he could hear the announcement of yet another horse falling or being shot , look sad and become emotional for a second ...and then return to check if his own horse had past the finishing line yet.
I was and still AM baffled by this.
I think horses tend to continue to run when they have lost a rider due to the herding instinct. They are generally following the pack.
I don't like horse racing, but I love horses.
I don't understand how any racing with animals (horses, dogs) can be good when they are forced/coerced to do it, and at the end of their racing life, most of them are killed. That's just plain barbarism.
And we think we (as a nation) are better and kinder to animals. PAH!
Horse racing has always made me uncomfortable. I remember as a kid saying to my parents 'the poor horses' and being told not to worry as they love running... *eyeroll*.
It was only when I went vegan that I realised that there were other people who were equally disguisted with it, everybody I knew was perfectly okay with it.