MEET OUR HORSE MEAT

THOUSANDS OF RACEHORSES ARE SLAUGHTERED IN AUSTRALIA EVERY YEAR

HORSE RACING WASTAGE IN AUSTRALIA

What is wastage?

Wastage refers to unwanted horses. It occurs all along the racing supply chain from foals through to old brood mares and of course, the horses that are not fast enough or are injured. 

• overbreeding
• inbreeding that favours speed over resiliance
• early strenuous training on immature bodies
• breeding incentives
• injuries on the racetrack
• masking injuries
• an accumulation of stress on young bodies
• the attitude that horses are a commodity that need to earn to stay alive
• training methods that make racehorses unfit for other pursuits
• horses pushed beyond their limits

Victims of the gambling industry

The business model of horse racing sells a dangerous product – gambling – a social evil that not only destroys the lives of families but exploits, harms and ruthlessly discards horses. Horses that are discarded to an uncertain fate are known as “wastage”.

After winnings are paid out to punters, State governments and racing industries make their profit from the losses of gamblers.

Gambling is the main form of revenue of horse racing – it is what sustains it. 41% of all regular racing gamblers, 403,000 adults, have gambling related problems.

There were 34,337 horses actively engaged in horse racing across 8 States of Australia for the 2019/20 racing season (1 August 2019 to 31 July 2020).

In July 2018, on the ABC Four Corners programme “Off Track”, Dr Bidda Jones Chief Scientist of RSPCA Australia stated that 8,500 horses exited the thoroughbred horse racing industry every year and a large proportion of these horses have nowhere to go.

We also know that many trainers and studs send these horses direct to doggers.  Some explicitly instruct the dogger to kill the horse and it is NOT to be rehomed.

Short racing life- 4.9% of their lives are spent racing  and then ?

She has no agency, no choice, she will race until she drops or is no longer useful.

 Relentless inbreeding by unscrupulous breeders…

As Reported by Jane Allin & Tuesday’s Horse

“Thoroughbred horses have not only been indiscriminately bred, but inbred for one trait, speed.”

“The maniacal frenzy for speed at the expense of durability and soundness has all but decimated a once genetically diverse and robust species.

Over the last four decades, the manipulation of the gene pool of the Thoroughbred and relentless inbreeding at the hands of unscrupulous breeders has created inherent weaknesses in the bloodlines that have led to dangerous flaws in horse  physical conformation that has destroyed the integrity of the breed.”

“Many racehorses carry in their DNA, the seeds of their own destruction.”

Read more at Tuesday’s Horse.

Be the next person to make a difference...

"Undercover investigations have revealed at least 37% of horses who vanish each year from the racing industry are killed based on one slaughterhouse alone, without considering the other Australian slaughterhouse and approximately 30 knackeries - a far cry from the industry's claims of 1%."

- Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses (CPR)

Race horses are abused

Tongue-ties are currently the subject of proposed NSW legislation by Mark Pearson MP of the Animal Justice Party. He is proposing to ban the whip, spurs and tongue-ties.

Racing experts claim tongue-ties are necessary to stop horses choking on their tongues.

We’re sure you will agree that horses with tongue-ties look distressed.

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