Category: Attitudes to animals

Information about our attitudes to animals and their rights

Endurance racing causes more deaths than the Grand National

Why do horse lovers put their horses through such endangerment?

If you have watched the above video you might begin to understand where I am coming from with this article and why I cannot understand why horse lovers are willing to put them through such endangerment for their own thrills.

In the UK, races like the Golden Button Challenge, are becoming increasingly popular judging by the number of videos taken and posted on YouTube, which involve horses falling, refusing to jump and being put through some punishing riding and less than desirable treatment. I find watching these distressing but obviously equine enthusiasts believe differently . I am of the opinion that horses are not natural jumpers or designed to be pushed to the limit by being ridden at speed over long distances and expected to traverse high jumps, rough ground and wide ditches. The jury is still out on this point but there is some evidence to substantiate it.

Endurance racing gets little attention

We are at that time of the year again when many people become extremely excited about watching a large field of horses stampeding over high fences supposedly to test their stamina and speed while risking death and injury from falls and collisions. Although anti-racing campaigners concentrate on deaths caused at iconic races such as the Grand National, endurance racing  receives little attention by the media and campaigners and yet cause far more deaths and abuse.

Endurance racing is a niche equine extreme sport which has spread across the world over the last few decades and provides thrills for the riders but hell for the horses. There are international and national events held all over the world, but the sport is most popular in the Arab States whose horses dominate, but countries like the USA, France, Australia and  South Africa  also take part. Because of the huge financial benefits and the competitive nature of the sport there are deaths, injuries, doping scandals and serious welfare issues surrounding it.

The races involve long-distance riding of 100 kilometres or more across often desolate areas like deserts with extreme temperatures. They are conducted against the clock just like long distance cycling races with convoys of team vehicles speeding alongside. Bottles of water are thrown to the riders to both drink and douse the horses. It is all about testing the horses’ endurance and speed and the riders theoretically must manage the stamina and fitness of their horses by the “effective use of pace, thorough knowledge of their horses’ capabilities and ability to cross all kinds of terrain“. The fact that the races have a “vet-gate” every 40 kms so that their fitness to continue can be checked is an indication of how the horses can suffer.

Win at all costs mentality.

The above video gives some idea of what the horses experience. Apart from tough training techniques being used, which often cause fractured leg bones, injuries are often not given enough time to heal between races there by debilitating the horses. The use of prohibited substances is allegedly rife and in the past nine participants, including well-known showjumpers, dressage riders and trainers were implicated in it and suspended for administering them. Some riders are accused of a ‘win at all costs’ methodology, riding horses at over 40 kph over rough terrain.

The sport is administered by an organisation called the ‘FEI’ who insist the horses’ welfare is at the heart of it, which is of course a nonsense, as there is no necessity for the sport to exist or to put the horses through such hardship. Their Code of Conduct for the welfare of the horse and “Clean Sports campaign 2010” states that:

“the entire equine community – athletes, veterinarians, grooms, managers, coaches, owners and officials help combat doping and the inappropriate use of medications through better education and increased vigilance”.

The sport is littered with injuries and deaths including six horses dying within 22 days in 2017, some from ‘catastrophic injuries,’ during races at the Dubai International Endurance City (DIEC) built and operated by Sheikh Mohammed specifically to host these races. Two horses were euthanised at a 90 km endurance ride in Fontainbleau, France in October 2016 and a rider-less horse escaping onto an auto route suffered fatal injuries.

Most horse lovers and owners will no doubt disagree with my comments, but there is something very wrong with what they are put through to accommodate this ‘sport’  and it may be time to have an inquiry into these activities.

Top animal charities spend £500 million a year saving unwanted animals.

Are animal re-homing charities failing animals?

We all know that the thousands of animal “re-homing” charities in the UK and around the world are doing wonderful work in finding new homes for hundreds of thousands of animals each year, because they are quick to tell us so and we see their great work depicted on television documentaries and in the press. As donating public we revel in the glow of sad stories and happy endings of animals finding “forever homes” and for this reason we throw millions at these charities to enable them to continue.

The top eight UK charities spend £500,000,000 each year to support the infrastructure to “save” and “rescue” animals from us humans. In the case of the Dog’s Trust, the UK’s leading dog charity, this works out at £8,100 per dog to care for and re-home the 13,141 dogs (2017 figures).

It would seem on the surface that the animal re-homing charities are doing a really good job and making the most of the money we give to them, but should they judge their success by the number of animals they take in and re-home or by what they are accomplishing in reducing numbers in the first place.

The Humane Societies of the United States (HSUS) is constantly criticised for not giving enough of their funds to animal shelters, but they once succinctly responded by declaring that their aim was to “prevent cruelty and stop animals entering animal shelters in the first place”. It could be argued that the re-homing charities are perpetuating the problem of irresponsible pet ownership by offering a free service to accommodate and re-cycle unwanted pets, strengthening the creed that they are disposable objects.

Each year the number of unwanted and abandoned animals never seems to decrease.

Are animal shelters just re-cycling plants for irresponsible owners.

Each year the major UK animal re-homing charities take in tens of thousands of unwanted dogs, over a hundred thousand cats, thousands of horses and donkeys and hundreds of thousands of rabbits and other small animals. All these figures could probably be doubled, trebled or even quadrupled if you consider the numbers taken in by the hundreds of smaller UK charities.

Local authorities supposedly dealt with 7,000 stray, abandoned and unwanted dogs in 2017 of which over 2,000 were put to sleep although these figures seem far too low. The Cats Protection charity alone cares for nearly 50,000 cats annually.

If official figures are correct, we are supposedly getting on top of the abandoned and stray dog numbers on the streets, but half of the dogs that the Dog’s Trust accept, 6,500 (2017 figures), are strays from local authorities. Any slight decrease is more than matched by the increasing number handed into animal rescue centres by fickle owners so the status quo remains despite continuing campaigns and free neutering. This results in more facilities opening to cope with the continual flood. To make matters worse we are increasingly importing other countries’ stray and unwanted animals. We have had a cat and horse crisis for several years now and an increasing problem of unwanted exotic pets which has resulted in even more charities to rescue them.

While charities are happy to continue picking up the burden there is no incentive for the government or the law to intervene or take notice. The UK Government almost entirely washes it hands of the subject and even relies on animal charities to collate figures on the state of our animal keeping habits such as the RSPCA with their cruelty figures and the PDSA with their PAWS survey otherwise we would have no idea of the problems.

Kittens, rescue, animal rescue,, abandoned, unwanted
The number of stray and unwanted cats in the UK is incalculable.

There must be more to animal welfare than just re-homing dogs and cats.

The charities will argue that they only exist for this purpose, but surely this is a short-sighted outlook and instead of proudly proclaiming the increasing numbers they are finding homes for, they should strive to decrease the numbers becoming unwanted in the first place.  There must be more to animal welfare than just re-homing dogs and cats, but most charities seem happy to just tread water, accept the status quo and never make inroads into solving the major welfare problems. Do we just accept this as a fact of life and money well spent or should we expect more from them? Perhaps it is time for a completely new mind-set.