Horse Fatalities at Cheltenham

[beryllium]

I feel so so sad that 5 horses died yesterday at the races. 3 of them died in the same race. I had to turn over the channel very quickly as they were about to repeat the deaths of these horses again, and I simply am watching an animal being run to its death.

What is to be done to stop this happening again?

Why did it happen? and to so many in the same race?

[teag1rl]

The deaths are being investgated, and apparently there is not a problem with the ground. Just coincidence I think making it a really bad day.

[noxlumos]

You very rarely get fatalities at racecourses when you consider the sheer volume of horses that run everyday in the UK and Ireland.It's just a terrible shame when it does happen, and no one mourns it more than the racing fraternity.There is very little you can do to stop it happening, the usual scenario when you have multiple injuries or deaths being that one horse falls and brings down several others resulting in a jockey and horse pileup. If you have a 16.2HH horse land on top of another one or a jockey then you're going get serious injuries to all concerned, it's just a really sad and unfortunate racing incident.I was out all day yesterday and didn't see the race concerned so I don't know if this is what happened in this situation but sounds likely to me.On the other side of the coin, there's a young jockey from our village who was horribly injured during a point to point race ( her horse was fine) and she has two crushed lungs and multiple fractures and other injuries, is in intensive care in a medical coma and is really fighting for her life, but again it's just a racing incident and nothing much you can do about it.

[kipchik]

I know i'm probably in a minority with this but I don't agree with half of these races and the grand national is just a sick joke,may as well just line the horses up and shoot them its gotta be quicker than letting run themselves to death.

[mrrobbo15]

...one thing is for sure...the horses love running and jumping, because if they didnt, they wouldnt do it...deffo

[beryllium]

Here is something to read for info.

http://www.peta.org.uk/factsheet/files/FactsheetDisplay.asp?ID=152

I'm very confused by it all.

[teag1rl]

here's something else to read:

http://www.peoplekillinganimals.com/antipeta.htm

[teag1rl]

oops, remove </p> from end of address after clicking

[beryllium]

blimey teag1rl, talk about 4rse and elbow... that was heavy reading on the other side.... I'm an on the fence girl, because there are compelling facts on both sides...it still pains me to see what happened and I would hope they will work on a way of preventing horse deaths like this. I am aware of the business side of it as neighbours of ours have 2 retired racers and next to them is a horse trainer. They both seem to dislike each other and then my sister in law has 2 ponys and 1 16.2 HH horse and they are all treated with huge amounts of care because they're back yard 'pets'...

I do feel for your local jockey girl, noxlumos, I hope she recovers well, long old haul ahead for her it seems. a friend of mines daughter was working in spain and was kicked very very badly in the stable, She recovered somehow but she is a changed girl, facially, physically and speech. She still works with horses.

I still feel there are some races that need not exist and yes, they do love to run and jump.......

[teag1rl]

beryllium, I wasn't getting at you. The factsheet you posted was for a peta site, and I do have issues with peta so although the link I posted had nothing to do with the original topic I was just playing devils advocate really. I care for animals too!

[beryllium]

I know teag1rl, I can tell that :-) and I wasn't aware peta had an opposite side. Politics are everywhere aren't they? just when you think a cause is genuine.....

[noxlumos]

Peta are a dreadful organisation, they are everything wrong with animal welfare groups and get everyone else a bad name. My wife and I re-school ex-racers when she's not working and the problems occur with these horses not when they are in the racing yards but when they retire. Like all types of animals some of them fall into the wrong hands and end up neglected, abused or unwanted, but you can scarcely blame the racing fraternity for that, they are sold as they are surplus to requirements.The meat aspect is interesting. Yeah a very few do grace our tables eventually, but so do people's ponies. It's not something unique to the racehorse industry and an ex racer can be worth it's weight in gold as a hunter, eventer or dressage prospect once reschooled so very few, at least initially, end up in meat markets because simply there is lots of money to be made from ex-racers correctly re-schooled wheras your average 16HH meat horse perhaps fetches only �500. There's a big difference in getting �5,000 for a decnet hunter and not bothering and flogging it for meat for �500. People don't throw �4,500 away.It just doesn't happen.If a racer straight off the track comes through a meat market, there are plenty of horse dealers there who will bother to take it home, re-school it and then sell it for a few thousand.The only time an ex racer is put down is if it's days as a viable horse are at an end due to injury which is then the kindest thing to do and the right thing to do, but that's the same across the spectrum of the horse world from shetland ponies to shires.

[beryllium]

Please tell me noxlumos, that horse meat isn't sold here for human consumption unknowingly. I know when I was in France it was on the menu and when I was a child the school tried to trick us into eating it... I lived on hot chocolate while I was there!!!

[noxlumos]

No, indeed, lots of horses go for meat, I was trying to point out that horses across the whole spectrum get slaughtered for meat and that really racehorses are amongst the least likely to be sold for meat unless they are so badly inured that they are unable to function on any useful level. If you attend a horse sale the main meat candidates are the smaller unbroken native wild ponies as it's not financially as rewarding for people to put in the equivalent amount of effort when they will only get a low return. Horse meat is common, not trying to imply it's any sort of myth, just trying to get the percentage of ex-racers who meet that fate into a bit of proportion.

[beryllium]

Thanks noxlumos, not that it makes me feel good or anything but of course racers are worth more alive... oh well, looks like the cat and dog food market are gonna be haps!! I wonder how many tins 7 horses makes? and will it make my cat faster? only kiddin' :-) she eats tuna..........

[Harry Nuttal]

Aw, get a grip you lot (well, most of you). I love horses and used to ride a lot. I'm a racing fan as well. We aren't talking about the death of a loved one for God's sake. There was a clip of a little African girl on TV a few weeks back; she'd just died. She'd had some treatment over here and was back home when she caught some bug or other. And the poor little mite had been born without arms and without legs. That's something to cry over, not the death of some pampered horses who died doing what they enjoyed.

[joko]

i agree kipchik

mrrobbo - you'd jump over fences and run as fast as you can too if someone was sitting on your back whacking hell out of you with a whip, whether you liked it or not!!

[Englishbird]

I'm afraid I just turn off when I see that a horse has died. I (we) can't do anything about it, they're certainly not about to ban racing for anyone, but yes, it makes me very sad. I won't watch the Grand National at all.

Harry Nuttal, a lot of us have just as much compassion for animal welfare as we do for human welfare, there's enough compassion to go round. When you take any animal out of it's natural environment, or, if you take the natural environment from the animal, you have a responsibility to treat it right, do you think the animal has any concept of whether or not it's 'pampered'?

The best I can hope for is that all pets and animals kept for man's reasons, are treated as well as possible. Mine certainly have been, I've had horses in my care put down, and in the defence of all the jockys and grooms, it's absolutely heartbreaking when it happens. i can assure you that very few of them take it lightly. It's not like injecting a cat, it's a tonne of animal that has to be dragged into a lorry, it's not a nice thing to watch, even for the hard of heart.

[heidipup]

kipchik, quite agree with you. Don't like ANY horseracing specialy the grand national.