Numbers of horses

Approximately 18,000 foals are born into the closely-related British and Irish racing industries each year, yet only around 40% go on to race. Those horses who do not make the grade may be slaughtered for meat or repeatedly change hands in a down ward spiral of neglect.

Raced to death
Around 420 horses are raced to death every year the details can be viewed at www.horsedeathwatch.com , if horses have any injuries result to whipping or killing. Horses now commonly have bleeding lungs that can kill horses when they breath in there rib cadge just collapses and they die.

Action points
Sign this petition that you are not going to bet on horses and the grand national.
Write to your local bookies or betting shop.
Write to your local newspaper.

Thanks Very much for reading this article, now please sign this petition.

This petition was made by James C. Maxwell. 

The deaths of two horses – Ornais and Dooneys Gate – in the 2011 Grand National caused a national outcry, after images of Ornais’ tarpaulin-covered corpse were accidentally screened on television. Since 2000, 35 horses have been killed at the three-day Aintree meeting, with 20 of them dying on the Grand National course itself.

The Grand National race is deliberately hazardous. A dangerously overcrowded field of 40 horses is forced to confront 30 extraordinarily challenging and treacherous jumps, over a gruelling course of four-and-a-half miles. In the 2011 Grand National, just 19 of the 40 horses completed the event. Ornais and Dooneys Gate were killed in horrific falls resulting in a broken neck and a broken back, while the winning horse, Ballabriggs – already exhausted and dehydrated – was mercilessly whipped in the final stages of the race.

Despite a great deal of pre-race hype, a majority of respondents to an NOP Poll commissioned by Animal Aid last year said the Grand National is ‘cruel’, with sentiment continuing to move against the event. There is little hope that recently announced changes to the course will be any more successful at reducing the risks to horses than have previous, much-heralded adaptations.

A short film made by Animal Aid, available on the group’s website, reveals the true price paid by horses entered into the annual Grand National race at Aintree.

Please view the film and support Animal Aid’s campaign to get this outdated, cruel and obscene race banned for good.