For Immediate Release, Monday 2 January 2023 

ACTIVISTS CALLING FOR MORE STRINGENT TESTING OF HORSES BEFORE RACING

After yet another tragedy, this time in the Perth Cup where five year old mare Chili Is Hot was killed after a fall, the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses (CPR) is calling for across the board testing of horses at every racetrack in the country similar to the mandatory testing during the Melbourne Spring Carnival.
 
Quotes attributable to Campaign Director for CPR, Elio Celotto 

“The fact that the stringent testing of racehorses only occurs in a handful of key races during the Spring Carnival demonstrates that this industry doesn’t care at all about its horses. It only cares about its image and its social license that they are quickly losing. If the tests were in place at Ascot yesterday, Chili Is Hot may have been scratched from the race and still alive today.”
 
“This was no accident – these are incidents just waiting to happen. A horse is killed on Australian racetracks, on average, every 2.5 days.”

“Chili Is Hot is the tenth horse to be injured and killed in just over 12 months at Perth’s Ascot track alone. The other deaths didn’t event get a mention because, just like most other horse deaths, they didn’t occur in a high-profile industry racing event like the Perth Cup.”
 
“Stringent testing won’t save them all but at least if injuries are picked up early, horses can be given the time required to fully recover. The problem is, they want the horses on the racetrack as much as possible to give their connections the best possible chance of making a dollar.” 
 
“If they really want to reduce injuries and fatalities, they also need to get rid of all the instruments used to force horses into compliance like the whip, tongue ties, spurs and even bits”
 
“This is business as usual for the racing industry that treats the horses they rely upon to exist as disposable objects. Their only real concern when a horse comes to grief is the negative publicity which they know turns more people away.”

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