When you watch Horse Racing on TV, presenters make the coverage and the sport itself look as consumer friendly as possible. The horses almost look like they're having a good time racing each other, and everything appears fine - but to believe it a fair sport is a cruelly wrong belief.
Behind the scenes of the racing industry it claims thousands more victims than just the horses which die out on the track, thoroughbred horses which haven't made the cut of being good enough to race or the horses which are past their prime or even ex-race horses who suffered bad injuries on the track may be sent to the abattoir and killed. Only a few lucky ex-champions get the opportunity to live out the rest of their life in greener pastures.
In a time where a revolution is becoming apparent in the view on animal rights, is there a future for a sport as dangerous and as punishable is this? Fatal injuries are common place in a sport like this, with broken necks, backs and legs some of the most common - however if a jockey gets injured, we hear about it straight away. What about the horse? Why isn't the horse just as important as the jockey?
The focus of Horse Racing definitely isn't on welfare, the booming financial revenue of the sport means that safety will be disregarded for profit - therefore, instead of making the race safer for horses, they use the profit they get on further promoting the sport. Veterinary treatment will be available for the horses as long as they are racing and making money, however if the horse suffers a more long standing injury then the horse will be killed as it is more 'cost effective'.
As long as people continue to bet on horse races, horses will continue to die. Is it really worth seeing the death of an innocent animal just for your enjoyment? It's not an enjoyable sport for the horses, and if you care about the welfare of them - it's time to boycott the sport until the message gets through, that animals are our equals and not our subjects.
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