Sport using animals
 

Just noticed Ascot is about to take place,some guys dressed in silly clothes ,with a whip,riding a horse round a track in this heat,riding it for all it's worth,until some die of injuries or exhaustion,in my eyes it,nearly on a par with foxhunting,dog racing,bullfighting etc,my question is WHY is it so popular ? it's as cruel as other animal sports in my book,but people dressing up and getting excited about it is not nice to see,why do you think this is different to other animal sports where the animals are in danger? I know I will be called all sorts and unpopular but I feel strongly about it so thought I would ask why:shrug: I am ready for the onslaught:laugh:

its an interesting question and i don't condone it for sure. The easiest answer is money, people make obscene amounts of money from it. Fox hunting, not so much

Take another example of boxers knocking hell out of each other, do you think it would still be accepted if no money was involved?

I just find it weird how people get up in arms about certain sports but not others when the end result can end up with a dead animals,and yes the horse racing in particular is crazy and obscene amounts of money changing hands,not sure I will get many answers to this as there really isn't one I don't think,but thankyou for your take on it bots:wavey: why are people so bothered about :shrug:for example foxes,but not horses.

Because people see it as if it's harmless - it's just riding a horse, they're being treated well when not competing etc... It's easy to color it in nice bright colours and portray it like what you see is the only truth. Same goes with zoos. No one is bothered seeing the backstage and the consequences, hence the ignorance around animals used for entertainment.
Gladly circuses have already been exposed, and slowly it'll spread to other areas, like the growing awareness to animals and the unbelievable cruelty in the food industry.
I would like to believe people will understand eventually, as it's just so awful taking part in it and easy just choosing not to.


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Do you think horse racing will ever be treated as a cruel sport ?

I mean trainers treat horses with the utmost care but I always feel uneasy whenever the national comes around, hoping for no deaths. Personally don't like it

As somebody who is a strict vegan & Pro-animal rights, horse racing is something I feel that if it were invented today would immediately be stopped but unfortunately there is so much money involved in this sport it will never end. The horses are very well cared for at the top end of the sport but at the bottom end I don't think it's regulated enough.

Yes,I have heard some awful stories of when the horses have served their time,same as dogs , Wouldn't it be great if people just stopped paying to watch this stuff ?

The simple answer is probably that people see it as different to something like fox hunting because with hunting the intent is to harm an animal, whereas with something like racing, it's more of a side-effect.

If it makes you feel any better, the industry has been in decline for decades now, it's really not as huge as it was once. In the betting industry for example, there's been a massive shift in profits from Horses over to Football / Other sports / (mostly...) gaming machines. Tracks are struggling these days and there are various viewership rights disputes etc. because of them trying to up their prices to survive. It might not be something that lasts forever... it's mainly an "old man's tipple" at this point, not many under-40's are particularly interested, the younger punters prefer human sports.

Money is King unfortunately & online betting is out of control.

Not in the foreseeable future, unfortunately.
As a "sport", it has a big lobby to keep it running, specifically the betting companies, who will defend it with every legal (and financial) weapon they can use. Money money money.
Like the meat/fish/milk/egg industry is starting to lose credibility (both morally and health-wise), their time will come too. It will just take time. There's a lot to be changed, it just takes some time, years, decades, but the penny will drop.

I don't support racing where jumps are involved, like the Grand National, where it's probably that that some of the horses will probably be harmed. However, racing on the flat, although I don't follow it myself, is a sport followed by a lot of people and it employs lots of people in different areas. Also, racehorses are well fed and cared for and they run... and horses like to run.

Fox hunting, hare coursing, dog fighting... in fact any "sport" where an animal is harmed as a part of that sport should be stopped. Today.

The horses do all the work & the riders get all the glory.
Queen Liz loves the sport.....enough said.

Apparently no, there has not been enough said. Because the Queen likes it, it's bad? LOL... this place.

I presume they're trained in the heat? So I'm not sure if that's a problem. It's the grand national that should be banned. They're not designed to make all those jumps

They maybe trained in the heat,it doesn't mean they like it and want to do it,Has anyone ever asked them ? I can kinda get Livias they like to run bit,but I doubt they like that sharp flick of a whip ,The Grand national should definitely be banned.

Theres definitely a strong argument against The Grand National.. far too many deaths.. but wild horses naturally run in all weathers, trained horses do too. Im not sure how much the whip affects them actually, good point there. Maybe it needs altering.

This is what I can go along with,it just about covers all my thoughts on horse racing.

What are your thoughts on snail racing?

It's a bit sluggish tbf

Yeah this is what I was going to say, it's much easier to ignore the potential harm to the animals when it's not the aim of the sport, to be honest I didn't realise that injuries/deaths were that common in horse racing, although I've always thought it seemed cruel. I wouldn't say it's 'equal' to something like fox hunting though in terms of cruelty.

A lot of horses are not actually whipped - its the motion of the whip in the corner of their eye that makes they run faster as it spooks them - fight or flight kicks in. Having said that a lot of horses ARE whipped which definitely needs looking at

I understand that but both can result in the death of an animal which is needless.

Oh I agree with that. I do think that at some point in the future we'll look back on horse racing in a 'I can't believe people used to that' sort of way.

Read again. I was replying about it being a sport that older people like.
Honestly, this is why I rarely post on here now. Some just like to pull everything that's said apart.