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Greyhounds - You Bet They Die...
Horse Racing - Riding For A Fall
WARNING - Very graphic pictures
Tens of thousands of dogs are disposed of every year by the greyhound racing industry, either because they fail to make the grade as racers or because their racing days are over.
At least 40,000 greyhounds are bred every year in Great Britain and Ireland. The majority of these dogs are produced to supply the demand of the British greyhound racing industry, which is the biggest in the world. Thousands of greyhound pups and young dogs are put to death because they fail to reach racing standards. We estimate that at least 20,000 are killed annually in the British Isles.
Dogs which actually make it to the track are very likely to experience suffering during their racing careers. It has been estimated that greyhounds running on British tracks sustain more than 12,000 injuries every year and that 10% of dogs that race are already suffering from injuries. Injured toes, torn muscles, strained tendons and arthritic joints are commonplace.
At least 10,000 greyhounds "retire" from racing in Britain every year, at an average age of just 2½ years old. This is either because of injury or because they are adjudged to be no longer good enough to continue racing. Very few of these dogs manage to find good homes. This is hardly surprising, given a situation where many thousands of ordinary dogs are put to sleep every year because no homes are available for them.
The British Greyhound Racing Board itself admits that 500 retired greyhounds are put to death every year. This alone would be enough to justify a ban on greyhound racing, but the true figure for retired dogs killed is, sadly, far, far higher. Quite possibly as many as 6,000.
Many ex-racing greyhounds are simply abandoned and a large number are killed, sometimes by extremely cruel methods such as drowning or poisoning, because some owners and trainers are not prepared to pay the cost of having them put to sleep by a vet. We are receiving an increasing number of reports of trainers shooting dogs when their racing days are over.
We don't wish to suggest that everyone involved in greyhound racing is cruel or insensitive. There are some owners and trainers who love their dogs and take good care of them for the whole of their natural lives. But this only applies to a small minority of the thousands of dogs which enter racing, and thousands more are put to death before even reaching that stage.
The only way to prevent the massive suffering and deaths of greyhounds caused by the greyhound racing industry is for greyhound racing to be abolished. It is interesting to note that this has already happened in the USA, where six states have banned greyhound racing since 1993. In the meantime it is important that people avoid attending or betting on greyhound racing, so that it gradually comes to an end through lack of finance and support.
Horse Racing - Riding For A Fall
Some 15,000 foals are bred for racing in Britain and Ireland every year, but only one third are deemed sufficiently strong and healthy actually to be entered into racing. Most of the rest are discarded. This compares with the 1920s when far fewer animals were produced, but when more than 80% of foals are reported to have made the grade.
Whereas bone fractures in animals racing on the flat were comparatively rare 20 years ago, the attrition rate is now approaching that of jump racers. Amongst a typical group of 100 flat-racing horses, one fracture will occur every month.
Serious racing-related illnesses such as bleeding lungs and gastric ulcers are now endemic. 82% of flat race horses older than three years of age suffer from exercise induced pulmonary haemorrhage (EIPH), which can cause blood to leak from the nostrils. Gastric ulcers are present in no fewer than 93% of horses in training, in whom the condition gets progressively worse. When horses are retired, the condition improves.
Rather than confront the endemic problems that lead to thousands of horses every year failing to make the grade and hundreds more dying from race-related injuries and disease, the industry is looking for 'answers' by commissioning grotesque laboratory experiments on live horses. Recent examples include animals being made to walk for months on treadmills and then killed for analysis; others being subjected to deliberate wounding or to infection - while pregnant - with viruses that cause paralysis and abortion. There have also been a series of surrogate birth experiments where embryos were switched between ponies and Thoroughbreds. Some of the offspring were born with muscle wastage and freakishly long, deformed legs.