“Bad Apples” of the Racing Industry

CPR doesn’t often share investigations of the racing stewards into cruelty allegations about single racing participants because 1), it’s too depressing seeing the perpetrator being let off with little more than a slap on the wrist (because the racing industry is allowed to regulate itself) and 2), because sharing these single cases feeds into the racing industry’s narrative that there will always be “a few bad apples” in any industry.

But how many “bad apples” does it take before you must realise that the entire tree is infected?

CPR monitored the stewards’ inquiries for just four weeks, and list below, some of the cases that were published:

• An apprentice jockey was found guilty of repeated, deliberate physical mistreatment of racehorses through an extended time period ‘including kicking horses in the abdominal or flank areas; striking horses with whips, including the use of a whip handle and continued physical aggression while restraining a horse’.
  
  
• A racehorse trainer declined an offer of horse ambulance when his horse broke down during training and forced the horse to walk 400 meters back to the stable with a broken pelvis. Shortly after the horse had returned to the stable, he died from internal bleeding.
  
  
• During training, a racehorse sustained a deep laceration to a front limb, exposing bone, with rapid swelling developing in the region of the offside shoulder/elbow. His trainer decided not to call a vet until seven hours later. When a vet finally attended, the horse had to be euthanised.
  
  
• A racehorse owner was charged with 9 incidents of starving his horses, mares and foals, one incident of failing to provide veterinary treatment to one of the starving horses and failing to comply with the minimum welfare standards. Two of these horses are now “deceased”.
  
  
• Three racehorses and two broodmares were all found to be starved by their racing licensed owner and not given the necessary veterinary care or relief from the pain they were suffering.
  
  
• A racehorse trainer was caught on CCTV hitting a horse in the face two times with his fist, followed by two kicks in their stomach. The trainer expressed no remorse over his actions saying, ‘his fist hurt more than the horse would have felt’.

Note that these are only the incidents of cruelty that get reported to stewards and proceed to be investigated. And because the racing industry is allowed to regulate itself, perpetrators are penalised with only a few months suspension of their racing licence. They will rarely be prosecuted under state animal protection laws.

We cannot thank you enough for refusing to attend or bet on horseracing, and therefore not enabling this inherent cruelty. Animals do not belong in profit driven industries where welfare always comes second.