Carte Blanche tonight

Totally agree with you Dave. We put our animals down when they suffer yet these flipping governments make it illegal for humans to do likewise.. We all have or will one day watch loved ones suffer in there last months with pain and have a painful death yet we can’t give them an injection so that we can die with some of our dignity still intact.

As for putting race horses down after they can’t race anymore is a disgusting thought. Horses are not commodities, they living, breathing beings, but then I almost forgot, only money counts to some people.

A bullet a far better option than cruelty pain and starvation.

chicken n chips wrote: Totally agree with you Dave. We put our animals down when they suffer yet these flipping governments make it illegal for humans to do likewise.. We all have or will one day watch loved ones suffer in there last months with pain and have a painful death yet we can’t give them an injection so that we can die with some of our dignity still intact.

As for putting race horses down after they can’t race anymore is a disgusting thought. Horses are not commodities, they living, breathing beings, but then I almost forgot, only money counts to some people.

As a vegetarian(purely on ethical grounds - not religion), I find it difficult to understand my "addiction" to Racing - I justify it in my own way as I was exposed to Racing as a very young child(not a good thing to expose your child to any addictive behaviour but following racing was common practice in many households in the early 1970's) and only developed a "conscience" re-killing of animals in my mid twenties(I fight with myself on a daily basis over this dilemma).
The reality is that like all large herbivores the horse is a source of protein for carnivores - I see no real difference between slaughtering a cow or a horse except that the one is used for a number of years to provide entertainment for humans and the other is kept alive until it is ready for slaughter or in the case of dairy cows until milk production ceases. I personally feel that racing, in essence, is cruel but the addiction is very strong and I will live with my choices albiet with a sway towards "giving up".

Shoking

I watched the show very sad and very bad, what we can do to animals

Just look what we do to chickens. They live in their own shit, eat each other and sometimes rot away amongst the living just so that we the scourge of the earth humans can enjoy an egg.

Around where I live we have shoots. These men dress up as hunters, bring their gun dogs along and shoot pheasant. They say it’s a sport. Bullshit. They feed the pheasant for months fattening them up and then they come along three times a month during the shooting season and kill these poor birds. After the shoot they gather around and drink their rum and or red wine with their picnic lunches and tell each other how great they are. What I usually do when they arrive is I go for a walk exactly where they are heading too. Fuck them, no pheasant is getting shot as far as I can help it. On the estate next door they shot 700 in one afternoon. That’s the ones that their dogs retrieved. I asked one of the beaters how many do you think were shot and are still alive injured. His reply, Who gives a hoot. The “only good thing about it” is that the foxes have a feed off the dead ones which were not retrieved.

Welfare is a very tricky subject. However, there is the ideal world and then there is the real world.

I have kept all my horses off the track, so I'm a pro-lifer in that respect.

However, I also respect the right of other people not to want to keep a horse for the full length of its life (something that happens in every discipline, not only racing).

The reality is that in racing very few people want or are able to keep a horse for the length of its natural life. So a solution must be sought.

The choices are to pass the horse on or to put it down. Most choose to pass it on. South Africa currently happens to be a little behind the curve when it comes to a formalised solution to this problem, so as matters stand, things are a little grey and everyone does what they can and hopes for the best.

It is my experience (and it is only my experience and I do not expect anyone else to agree with me on this), that people are asshats and to hope for the best and expect other people to do the right thing and to put anyone else - let alone an animal - before themselves - is the surest way to disappointment.

So, if a gun were held to my head now, I would far rather put my horses to sleep knowing they've had a good life and will pass with a kind hand and a fully belly than risk passing them to someone else.

If you disagree, and feel that other people are worth trusting with another life, then I wish you the very best of luck. Often it works out just fine and it makes me happy when it does. But sometimes it does not. Forgive me if it is not a risk I am prepared to take.

The only sport to have occurred once in the Olympics was (real) pigeon shooting. At the end of the event the field was described as a carnage and with many injured birds still fluttering on the ground.


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Back to euthanasia, in the 60’s there was a movie called “They shoot horses don’t they”. It was about a youngster who believed he had to shoot his brother because of a very bad injury. He couldn’t understand why he was being jailed because he and others did the same to horses.


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I couldnt bring myself to watch as I hate any form of animal cruelty. The reaction on social media has been better than expected with little comment on the role racing plays in this.

I think zsuzsanna04 has hit the nail on the head and touched on some very pertinent topics.

There are just hardly homes out there for TBs off the track. I have had countless issues trying to home some of our horses off the track, and have am in a situation where I can personally, financially only keep one of the horses. I guess he is one of the lucky ones.

Many horses are given away in the hope of a decent home, and the seller (Be it the owner or trainer or rehoming center) just wants the horse off their cost and expenditure sheets. This is when the little girl comes along, wants her very own first horse daddy finds a cheap option and viola - the horse suddenly has a "Home". A few weeks down the line, said little girly has either had an accident, or daddy finds out out that it costs a little more than budgeted for to hire a professional and experience trainer, or the horse has had to be physically and mentally rehabilitated and girly has not been able to ride as she had hoped to.

By no means is the above scenario always the case. Every now and again an experienced rider is looking for a new showjumper, eventer, hack or paddock ornament, and they have the skills, finances and knowledge to rehabilitate the horse for its second career.

How are we going to fund the rehabilitation and training for a horse beyond its racing career? Let's budget on R4000/month. Will the owner pay this? What about the punter? If it weren't for the horse and the owner, we wouldn't have this sport. Maybe we need to implement a tax on all betting as well as a percentage of stakes to help fund the rehabilitation of racehorses.

And the vetting that needs to take place for EVERY horse being retired from racing needs to be comprehensive. We need to be honest and open with a prospective new home as to what the issues are with each horse. Ultimately, it is those that are the most sound (Mentally and physically) that are the ones to be homed the easiest. Should a horse be passed on with issues, you are merely passing the buck and making the problem someone else's problem.

I fully endorse euthanasia in the appropriate circumstance. It has taken me a while to get my head around this, but the horror stories about horses being passed on and landing in the wrong hands have been enough to make me understand. The Oppenheimers certainly were onto something. It is certainly not the only option for a horse retired from racing, but it is a very real option that people should consider. At least you now know where your horse has ended up.