Five reasons why horse racing is cruel (2024)

FAQs

Five reasons why horse racing is cruel? ›

Racing exposes horses to significant risk of injury and sometimes, catastrophic injury and death through trauma (e.g. broken neck) or emergency euthanasia. The odds are stacked against horses in the racing industry.

Racing exposes horses to significant risk of injury and sometimes, catastrophic injury and death through trauma (e.g. broken neck) or emergency euthanasia. The odds are stacked against horses in the racing industry.

Risk of injury and death

Racehorses may also die suddenly during or after a race, which may be due to heart failure or other causes such as the condition known as Exercise Induced Pulmonary Haemorrhage (EIPH), where bleeding into the lungs occurs.

It is only cruel to horseback ride if the rider is ignorant. There are conditions and situations that are painful to the mount - lameness issues, back problems, sores beneath the saddle area, bad teeth, behaviors from previous traumas, and more.

Equestrian sports include horse racing, show jumping, dressage, and competitions that “celebrate” a horse's breed. These practices supposedly improve performance, but they qualify as animal abuse and cruelty. Abuse in equestrian sports can be anything from spring to drug abuse to racing horses underage.

Running (cantering or galloping) is a quintessential horse behaviour and horses voluntarily run together in groups when given the opportunity — even in races without jockeys. However, there are a number of reasons to think horses have not evolved a desire to "win" during a group gallop. Horses are social animals.

Many horses—fittingly called “bleeders” by the racing industry—will bleed from their lungs, a condition known as exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage. In an attempt to decrease the bleeding, many horses are given a drug called Lasix or Salix, a diuretic with performance-enhancing qualities.

About 20,000 U.S. horses—including former racehorses, work horses, show animals, discarded pets, and even wild horses—are sold to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico every year, according to a recent report by U.S. nonprofits Animal Wellness Action, Center for a Humane Economy, and Animals' Angels.

Stress is inherent in the racing environment, and racehorses must learn to cope with it effectively to perform at their best. Training programs incorporating stress management techniques, such as gradual exposure to race-day scenarios, help horses adapt and remain calm under pressure.

Others have written about the economic benefits of the horse-racing industry. It provides jobs for farm workers, feed companies, grooms, trainers, and more.

Is horse racing cruel to the horses? ›

Horse racing is an industry rife with systematic animal abuse, from the moment when young foals are separated too early from their mothers for training to the cruelly cut-short end many racehorses meet, suffering an early, painful, and preventable death on the racecourses they were bred for.

To make matters worse, racehorses are not even afforded the protections of animal-cruelty statutes, meaning an owner or trainer can run his horse into the ground — yes, even to death — with virtual impunity. Heartrending separation. Spirit-crushing confinement and isolation. The grinding of unformed bodies.

Horses bred for racing were born to run and love to run, and they are some of the best cared for, pampered horses on the planet during their careers and leading up to their careers. The cruelty would come from the surplus of horses produced and the "disposal" of horses that can no longer race/breed.