YES, JOCKEYS HAVE A CHOICE & HORSES DO NOT…
There are some who advocate for improvements or even the banning of horse racing who do not feel sorry for jockeys because they freely choose to race — and horses do NOT have a choice, they are forced to race. BUT we DO feel bad for jockeys because any injury or loss of life is tragic.
‘Fatigue kills’:
Jockeys warn of dangerous workloads after serious falls
MARCH 19, 2023 by Peter Ryan
Jockey fatigue from unpaid track work is contributing to serious falls, according to group one-winning silk Ben Melham, after a third rider in as many weeks was injured and a horse destroyed on Saturday.
Melham’s partner, Jamie Kah, was still recovering from a major fall that landed her in hospital when Teo Nugent was taken to hospital after his mount, Florescent Star, fell in race six at Moonee Valley on Saturday. Nugent suffered concussion and a fractured C1 vertebra, but may be released on Sunday. Florescent Star was euthanised.
August 2019:
Australian horse racing industry figures show 20 jockeys have been killed in the country since 2000, 17 of them during races and three during track work. In February, a Victoria state trainer died, also after falling from a horse during a training run.
We spend a great deal of time and energy educating racing fans that when they bet, either on or off the track or support racing in any way, they contribute to the death of horses. Deaths on the track and even those horses who never make it to the track die too.
AND if they don’t die on the track, or during their racing career, there is a high probability that they will end up on a truck and shipped to be slaughtered for human consumption.
The racing industry has a word for their discards, they use the word “wastage“. Yes, really. The gorgeous horses they claim to love and respect are referred to as wastage when they are no longer wanted or needed.
Having said that, horses are not the only ones who suffer horrendous life-altering injuries or death — jockeys are killed too.
#MOHM NEEDS YOUR HELP!
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.
GREY HORSES SLAUGHTERED
ANOTHER MYTH BUSTEDYou may have been led to believe that grey horses (sometimes referred to as white horses) do not go to slaughter for human consumption. Sadly, that is not true. Horses of every colour, size, breed and age are slaughtered in Australia for human...
DEATH AT HORSE RACETRACKS
HORSE RACING VETS ARE BOTH DOCTOR & DRUGSTOREThe New York Times ran a series of articles on horse racing in 2012. Sadly little has changed since then. Today we're featuring a summary of one of those articles. The title: Racing Economics Collide With...
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