racing industry

Elms is the third horse to be put down after a jumps race this season. After a successful start to the season two horses have lost their life in the past week.

It is with regret that Racing Victoria confirms that Elms had to be 'humanely euthanized' after suffering a severe fracture of the right fore cannon while racing on the flat during the early stages of Race 2, the BM120 Hurdle at Casterton. This was an 'unfortunate incident' and RV would like to extend its sympathies to trainer Luke Oliver and the owners of Elms at this sad time.

None of the excuses put forward by the jumps racing industry for the continuation of this cruel 'sport' are acceptable -- and claims that horses will be shot, or go to the knackery has only given the community greater insight into how ruthless and uncaring the jumps racing fraternity are.

Why allow the "sport”"to continue at such high price?

There was another tragic death of a horse at Sportingbet Park Sandown when three horses fell in the steeplechase, including Show Dancer, who was also euthanized down, and the event also being called off.

Show Dancers' legs slipped as he prepared himself for a hurdle, and he was fatally thrown through the fence, twisting and turning in the process. The 3400m steeplechase at Sandown on Tuesday proved to be a chaotic one, and ended in another horse being euthanised! While the jockey was cleared, the horse was doomed!

This tragic race was abandoned after three horses fell. If this race was called off due to "safety" concerns, then it's time the whole industry was called off.

While the racing industry claims that steeplechase safety has "improved" by 60% in the last four seasons with regards to fatalities, the very nature of the "sport" means it is inherently dangerous.

The speed, the heights, the clogged turf, the congestion, and the take-offs are all critical factors in making a safe finish, and that means decisions must be made under great stress for horses, and riders.

The very nature of jumps racing means that it can never by "safe". It's rare that horses die in flat races, so why should deaths be tolerable, and acceptable, when it comes to jumps racing?

The main players, the horses, are treated as throw-away items, as disposables in the pursuit of profits.

This barbaric "sport" no longer exists in any other states except for Victoria and South Australia. Jumps racing finished in Queensland more than 100 years ago. It stopped in WA in 1941 and in NSW in 1997. Tasmania ended it in 2007.

This "sport" should be trashed into history, along with other archaic activities such as recreational duck hunting, the mass slaughter of wildlife, 1080 poisonings, puppy factories, factory farming, and any forced use of animals in entertainment.

At least there is a light at the end of this dark, cruel tunnel for jumps racing horses in Australia! Victoria will soon be the only state in Australia where horse jumps racing is legal, according to the former head of the South Australian Jockey Club, Steve Ploubidis.
"I think that jumps racing in South Australia, the days are numbered," Mr Ploubidis told the ABC's 7.30 program.

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Bled dry - the fate of greyhound racing's 'wastage'
7.30 recently exposed widespread doping in the greyhound racing industry, and since then they've had a huge response.

Greyhound racing is an industry that a lot of people enjoy, but behind it lies a terrible toll on the dogs. There's a massive toll of injured animals. Many exhibit crate and muzzle sores, and stress from high speed chases. Australia's greyhound industry is the third biggest in the world, and each year Australians wager about $3 billion on the sport.

7.30 Report: Bled dry- the fate of greyhound racing's "wastage"

The ABC has received thousands of emails, calls and Facebook posts, some from insiders who've raised more concerns about the industry, others who claim we didn't show the positive aspects of their sport.

ABC: 7.30 report">Bled dry - the fate of greyhound racing's 'wastage'

In the past year more than 70 dogs have tested positive to banned substances, but insiders say many more cheats go undetected and use popular drugs including cocaine, amphetamines, caffeine and EPO, the performance-enhancing hormone favoured by disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong.

The industry estimates that some 25,000 greyhounds are bred in Australia each year, for a gambling industry.

The greyhounds who do make it to the track may endure harsh training regimes and are put at significant risk of sustaining serious injuries, such as broken legs, paralysis or head trauma, during training and racing. Some even die from cardiac arrest due to the extreme physical intensity of racing. On many occasions the injuries are 'uneconomical' to treat and the owner will instead have the dog killed.

They will finish racing between the ages of 2 and 4.  Of the chosen dogs only about half reach naming and training age. Thousands of puppies and young dogs are routinely killed.  The racing industry use the euphemism that they are  "humanely euthanased", or kept by their owners or adopted as pets.   The grim reality is that campaigners believe that 20,000 dogs are slaughtered every year. 

Many retired greyhounds are dumped, used for medical research or bled to death for their blood.  In a macabre irony, unwanted and dying greyhounds are being drained of their blood to help with the treatment of other dogs!  It's like "farming" spare body parts, from third world impoverished countries, and risking the lives of the "donors" or killing them, for the benefit of the wealthy.   It's predatory as is assumed that greyhounds, being part of an "industry" rather than pets, have less intrinsic value.

7.30 Report has exposed widespread doping of the racing dogs, but even more saddening and grotesque is that veterinary nurses claim they are being forced to kill some of the 17,000 healthy greyhound dogs believed to be discarded by the industry each year.

SELENA COTTRELL-DORMER, VETERINARY NURSE: You get eight dogs dropped off, oftentimes they will be just, yeah, just absolutely bled to death and euthanased, put in a body bag and put in the freezer and taken away for incineration. That's absolutely routine. No-one would bat an eyelid at that being the reality.

VICTORIA LUXTON-BAIN, VETERINARY NURSE: They would be brought in by a trainer. Normally we would get about three or four dogs and then they would arrive and then they'd be bled within about 48 hours of arriving. So they'd be put under anaesthetic and then bled and then euthanased while under anaesthetic.

Animals and entertainment/gambling industries are not compatible, and inevitably lead to exploitation.  The greyhound racing industry cruelly adds to our already abysmal pool of unwanted animals, doomed for "death row".

Like the horse racing industry's over-breeding and high rates of disposals, each year thousands of dogs never make it to the track because they fail to chase - or simply aren't fast enough.  They then become "wastage" and end up being destroyed.

Export

The Australian greyhound racing industry exports hundreds of greyhounds to supply and stimulate racing industries in other countries, where most of them will also be killed after their racing days. One of the biggest markets is Macau, — where the Canidrome racing track does not allow any dogs to be adopted.

Greyhound racing has been recognised as a cruel sport and therefore banned in 6 states of the USA and also in South Africa, with growing opposition in other countries.  Australia's standard as a first-world country, with humane treatment of animals, is failing to give these dogs a "fair go".  

This "sport" that uses, consumes and disposes of dogs in a wholesale manner and needs to be banned, like blood sports.

Greyhounds maybe fast, but they don't need much exercise.  They are naturally docile and gentle dogs and given the chance they make loving and faithful companions.  

Greyhound rescue - dogs available