Killing Horses: What Wonderful Sport

Do you like to see horses beaten with whips?

Does it please you to hear them scream when their legs are broken?

When they are destroyed do you feel some pleasure?

If you can answer Yes to any of the above questions then horse racing is the sport for you.

On the other hand, if you tend to answer No to all three you might perhaps agree with me that horse racing is no more a sport than bear-baiting or dog-fighting, both of which are illegal in all civilised countries.

For if it is depraved to deliberately cause suffering to a bear, or a dog, or a human being, how can it be acceptable to thrash a horse in order to make it run faster? To force it to jump high fences, knowing how frequently that causes agonising injuries that will result in the animal's death?

Here are just a few of the many horses killed by the UK racing industry so far in 2009.

• Pride Of Northcare collapsed and died after a race at Southwell.
• Farmers Lad fell and broke its neck in a race at Newbury.
• Endless Power suffered a broken pelvis during a race at Kempton Park and died during the following night.
• Kings Quay broke a leg during a race at Uttoxeter and was destroyed.

See this campaign website for a distressingly long list of deliberate cruelties inflicted in the name of sport.

Horse racing in the UK is just one part of worldwide network, all of it inextricably linked to gambling, with all its attendant crime and corruption.

Surely sport should be about human endeavour, is it possible to gainsay that?

That human endeavour can be a noble, inspiring, and entertaining thing. There's no need for animals to suffer, not in the name of sport.