[Jamie89]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

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.

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.