Frumpoon
Well-Known Member
Travelling a horse 350 miles with a career ending injury is unspeakably cruel
You really think that? You want the only slaughterhouse in the UK to shut? You want the horses to travel hound reds, potentially thousands more miles to a much less regulated slaughterhouse abroad?
This. The slaughterhouse is apparently not killing them all of clean and per proper practice. Some horses are being shot from from a distance, and some with other horses present. They are being caused unnecessary stress, pain and suffering.
'The footage recorded horses being shot together 26 times over the four days of filming.
On 91 occasions the cameras recorded a slaughterman shooting horses, not close up, but from a distance.'
I've no problem with well run slaughterhouses.
How on earth do poor practices still remain in the industry?
Horse racing: Thousands of racehorses killed in slaughterhouses https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57881979
In defence of the eventing young horse classes, I, as a really not very good amateur was able to take a horse broken in the spring of her 4 yr old year and do reasonably well at BYEH. It's no problem for pros to take a quality young horse and make it look very impressive at that level in a couple of months.
I'm not saying there aren't horses that are broken at 3 and doing these classes but there will be plenty there that haven't done a great deal at all.
In defence of the eventing young horse classes, I, as a really not very good amateur was able to take a horse broken in the spring of her 4 yr old year and do reasonably well at BYEH. It's no problem for pros to take a quality young horse and make it look very impressive at that level in a couple of months.
I'm not saying there aren't horses that are broken at 3 and doing these classes but there will be plenty there that haven't done a great deal at all.
If this is the case, the problem is with the slaughter houses and not the racing industry.
Hopefully!! From what I hear this one has a pretty bad reputation since it was sold.At the very least I hope this will result in the abattoir either getting its act together or losing its license
You would be no good on a sensationalist panorama programme !I can only speak from my own experience with this abattoir, I visit there for work (not to take horses to be slaughtered) and have been doing so for over 10 years.
Every horse day there are several visitors, normally from vet schools, research facilities etc collecting specimens for education and research. We are all allowed in, nothing is hidden and I've never observed anything that has made me question the humane treatment of the horses.
There is CCTV up permanently, there are at least 2 vets there at all times- 1 checking the horses as they arrive and before they go through to be shot and the other(s) inspecting the carcasses.
The man that shoots the horses is calm and patient with them- they get a lot of feral ponies through that have never had a head collar on and are understandably head shy so, whilst I have never witnessed it myself, I can see there would be situations where a shot from further away is necessary to avoid undue stress to the animal. The welfare standard for killing horses is much higher than for cows/ sheep/ pigs. The horses are not put in a chute as that is stressful for them but I imagine it would make a direct contact shot easier.
Would I take my own horses there? No. But only because I like mine done at home where there is zero stress, not because I would worry about welfare issues at the abattoir.
I can only speak from my own experience with this abattoir, I visit there for work (not to take horses to be slaughtered) and have been doing so for over 10 years.
Every horse day there are several visitors, normally from vet schools, research facilities etc collecting specimens for education and research. We are all allowed in, nothing is hidden and I've never observed anything that has made me question the humane treatment of the horses.
There is CCTV up permanently, there are at least 2 vets there at all times- 1 checking the horses as they arrive and before they go through to be shot and the other(s) inspecting the carcasses.
The man that shoots the horses is calm and patient with them- they get a lot of feral ponies through that have never had a head collar on and are understandably head shy so, whilst I have never witnessed it myself, I can see there would be situations where a shot from further away is necessary to avoid undue stress to the animal. The welfare standard for killing horses is much higher than for cows/ sheep/ pigs. The horses are not put in a chute as that is stressful for them but I imagine it would make a direct contact shot easier.
Would I take my own horses there? No. But only because I like mine done at home where there is zero stress, not because I would worry about welfare issues at the abattoir.
Better a racehorse with a swift end than a coloured colt left dead in a ditch with its feet tied. (Which wasn't a single occurrence in South Essex)
Hopefully!! From what I hear this one has a pretty bad reputation since it was sold.
The horse where still alive for 30 minutes after being shot they didn’t shot them correctly and they broke a load of laws on how it’s meant to be done. To be honest there is way to many horses being breed for racing industry to terrible stallions and mares with issues the racing industry should be fines for wastage of horses .
Personally I think the ££ of the racing industry should ensure PTS and disposal for their horses.
Obviously the slaugterhouse is at fault, but there are a number of issues which this brings up which I think we could do something about.
The loss of local abbatoirs has been a disaster for horses and small farmers. There should be one within 50 miles no matter where, even if they have to be publicly subsidised. It is not acceptable to have to transport stock further than that for slaughter, never mind horses.
They can only do that if ALL OTTB are PTS as soon as they are no longer in training. Surely nobody is arguing that they should not be rehomed / sold where possible?
Interesting post, Mule. Good counterbalance.
I noticed this in the Guardian write-up of the program: "The programme, titled The Dark Side Of Horse Racing, is based on footage supplied by the animal rights group Animal Aid, which campaigns for an outright ban on horse racing and an end to the slaughter of animals for food."
Given they clearly have an agenda and they provided all the footage, how reliable is it? Could they have slipped in the odd bit from dodgy slaughterhouses in Eastern Europe or wherever? I don't know. BBC should validate
ct check, but they want people to watch their programs instead of Netflix, so I wouldn't count on it.
Sorry I thought there was something at the time everyone was getting upset over the young Welsh ponies going there that potters had said it wasn't theirs anymore and obviously they had always had a good reputation.It wasn’t sold?
That's not possible- the horses are shot and immediately winched up by their hind legs and their throats are cut to bleed them out. Sorry if that is too graphic, but it's just not possible for a horse to be alive for 30mins after being shot there.
Did anyone else see the online response last week to the very successful australian racehorse selling at auction for 10k? (IIRC)
I know I watched a 2 year old race at Newbury on Saturday morning TV, just happened to flick over to it, they literally had foal tails. Imagine getting your toddler to run a marathon.What about riding them at 18 months?