SHOCKING FOOTAGE EXPOSES THE BRUTALITY OF HORSE RACING
The ugly truth behind horse racing has once again been laid bare.
The Victorian Racing Tribunal has released disturbing footage of disgraced Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Darren Weir electrocuting terrified horses with a banned device known as a jigger.
In the video, filmed in October 2018, Weir can be seen deliberately shocking three horses as they gallop on a treadmill.
He even looks around to make sure no one is watching before pressing the device against them—inflicting pain not for medical reasons, not for the horses’ benefit, but purely to force performance and profit.
Each horse is jolted repeatedly, about eight times each.
This is not an isolated incident.
This is the culture of racing.
Trainers like Weir are rewarded with fame and fortune, while horses are treated as disposable tools.
When exposed, they receive slaps on the wrist while the industry scrambles to save face.
Weir was first banned for four years for simply possessing the jigger.
Then, in July 2024, he received another two-year ban for actually using it.
His lawyers even tried to argue that the punishment should be backdated—essentially claiming he had already “done his time.”
The tribunal rejected that excuse, especially after it was revealed Weir had been running an unlicensed pre-training business during his supposed exile.
The Supreme Court dismissed Weir’s latest attempt to weasel out of accountability in July 2025.
But what does another two years really mean when horses have already endured unspeakable cruelty?
The animals get a lifetime of trauma.
The humans who profit from their suffering get bans that barely interrupt their careers.
THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG
This case is just the tip of the iceberg.
Devices like jiggers don’t exist in isolation—they are part of an industry built on cruelty, corruption, and cover-ups.
Every race we watch, every bet placed, fuels a system where shocking, whipping, drugging, and killing horses is business as usual.
It’s time to stop pretending racing can be “reformed.”
The footage of Darren Weir electrocuting defenceless horses proves what activists have been saying all along: horse racing is abuse, dressed up as sport. (Weir has been involved with drugging & shocking – learn more here.)
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Together, we can end the exploitation and ensure every horse is treated with dignity.
#MOHM THREATENED?
We’ve been threatened by those in the horse racing industry and those who benefit from horse slaughter more times than we can count.
But we are not going away.
We are going to persist until horse slaughter no longer exists for any purpose within Australia -- and until the horse racing industry makes drastic changes.
We are going to continue our hands-on work to offer lifelong sanctuary to as many horses as possible. We generally have 20 at just one of our locations - at any given time.
We have the acreage to take on more horses as financial support allows.
TALBOT BROTHERS
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