The track is big business in Australia; gambling and thoroughbred racing are inseparable in this country.  During recent years, racing’s gambling turnover has increased from $12 to $20 billion.

Horse racing is also inherently cruel and wasteful of life.  There is no disguising the fact that the Melbourne Cup is one of the cruellest days on Melbourne’s calendar.  Since the introduction of horse racing countless horses have sustained catastrophic injuries on the racetrack after being whipped mercilessly and pushed past their limits.

The 2014 Melbourne Cup race resulted in the death of two horses: one who collapsed and died in his stall after the race, and another who broke his right hind leg and had to be euthanised.  Furthermore, horses are dying at lower profile races all the time. From July 2016 until July 2017, 137 horses died on Australian race tracks. That is an average of more than two deaths a week.

Animal rights activist group the Coalition for the Protection of Race horses is concerned not just about what happens on the track, but about what happens to horses after they finish their careers.

The average racehorse will race less than three years before being discarded.  CPR estimates that 13,000 horses are sent to the slaughterhouse every year in what they say is a bi-product of the racing industry and end up as dog food that is exported to countries such as Belgium and Japan.  Not only thousands of injured, slow or old horses are sent to knackeries, but thousands of young and healthy horses with “behavioural issues” are also sent to abattoirs. Reports put the “wastage” rate for horses in training at about 40 per cent.

Only in horse racing do we still let humans whip animals.  Whipping can cause localised trauma and tissue damage, but ironically, flogging a live horse is only marginally less futile than flogging a dead one.  A study of Australian horse racing found it improved the times of just two per cent of horses.

Advocates of horse racing claim the animals enjoy the sport.  However, horses show a range of health effects that reveal that their management is solely in the interests of productivity.  This includes the health impacts of excessive training at a young age; young horses often have stomach ulcers because their training denies them the chance to engage in natural grazing.

There is nothing “sporting” about a pastime in which animals routinely suffer and die.  It is time we stopped the cruelty in “the race that stops the nation”.

Adrian P. Wolfin

Bellingen

Re Geoff Richardson's letter on no longer voting Green because they are against horse racing (Courier-Sun, Nov 14).  As he describes himself as "a horse racing fan/owner" he is biased.  I am not a member of the Greens but I can't see how they are "deliberately choosing to be misinformed" on the issue. Most Greens love animals, and they don't like to see the continuation of a cruel abuse of animals.

Maybe in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries people thought it was fun and entertaining, in their rather boring lives, but we know now in 21st century horse racing, the true story about the cruelty. We are still letting jockeys WHIP horses - is that acceptable in 2018? Apparently it is legal to whip the horse so many times, but OVER-whipping or whipping at the wrong time, carries a small fine.

Come on, get real. This is not a sport, it is a business based solely on gambling and alcohol, that is abusing horses for human entertainment. Racehorses are bred solely for the gambling industry, to make money for the owners and the bookies, etc.  How many horses don't make the grade and are 'disposed of' to the knackery? Sometimes in a dirty yard, shot while other horses are looking on shaking, waiting for their turn for the bullet or worse. (Read the article on the SMH by Melanie Sheppard “From prizewinners to pet meat: the harsh realities of horsebreeding" 17/11/2016). The cruelty involved in the horseracing industry is well documented online and in videos.

The racehorses who do make the grade are pushed to their physical limits, often suffering injuries and death or euthanasia.  And the actual race days are so ridiculous. Women dressed up with their fascinators on, teetering on stiletto heels and everyone drunk and gambling. I think the price horses have to pay for this is too high.  Now the Federal Government wants to do live export ships of Australian ex racehorses and other equines, to China.  A re-election of the Coalition Government will make this a possibility. 

Horse racing is no better than greyhound racing, as I told the Premier when she desecrated the sails of the Sydney Opera House recently, against the public will. It is 2018 and in Australia we still have these archaic attitudes to using animals for entertainment or gambling. I should say, it was my ancestor who started the St.Leger Stakes horse race in England in 1776, one of the first classic races.  But as his descendant in 2018, I am saying it is time for it to end and raise ourselves up higher. That's what being Green is.

Margaret St.Leger

Fernmount