petition to make the Grand National safer

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lassiesuca said:
I'd known my friend for two years. I'd grown up with my dog for 15 years? How can you tell me how I SHOULD feel?

That's really hurt me now, and I'm sorry if I've hurt others because I love my animals so? Like seriously, I don't need help.

I don't like many people, for reasons which are none of your business. Particularly my family, people aren't very nice in this world. People stab you in the back, people piss on you because a better offer has come along, people get pleasure out of torturing other people, animals etc. People laugh at one another and gang together to mock you.

Animals don't do this. Animals don't mock you, they don't laugh at you, they don't stab you in the back and are there waiting in the field for you when you need reassurance, they are there when you need a hug and you can return the favour.

I don't need help, I just value my animals a lot.

How dare you tell me how I should and shouldn't feel? That's really, really hurtful. My friend meant a lot to me, as did my dog. My dog was part of MY family. My childhood. It hurt like hell when he died, as it did when my friend died. I still am upset over her, but I am still upset over my dog.

That's really unfair to say
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Is this the post where the op felt that people were accusing her of being delusional?
 
lassiesuca said:
No it wasn't aimed at you, sorry for that misunderstanding, more of the general vibe which some members have given off (i.e. the ones who've been active in this discussion and then condemned myself and several others for their belief)

I don't think I've condemned anyone on this thread for not valuing their animal equally or more than a human, nor do I think that, what I've been hurt by is that people think I'm delusional because of it, if that makes sense?

I'm very sorry for your loss, and I don't doubt that the pain you felt was unbearable.

x
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yes that makes sence hun. that is the problem in posting on a public forum, some people that dissagree with you may well think that, its not nice but it comes back to peoples oppinions. truth is no one knows your life experience so no one should condem your choices
 
lassiesuca said:
If I'm quite candid, the moderating on here is pretty poor, however this thread isn't that bad. I think last night I was feeling a bit sensitive!
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I'm not surprised you were! However, you remain far calmer and more mature than those who were attacking you, who should be old enough to know better. Sadly, bullying is not confined to school playgrounds. It is a sad fact of life no matter how old you get. But it is especially bad when a load of older women bully a minor on the internet. :mad:
 
Wagtail said:
I'm not surprised you were! However, you remain far calmer and more mature than those who were attacking you, who should be old enough to know better. Sadly, bullying is not confined to school playgrounds. It is a sad fact of life no matter how old you get. But it is especially bad when a load of older women bully a minor on the internet. :mad:
Click to expand...

I agree, I was actually quite shocked! I know several other adult friends who have followed this thread (but for good reasons, opted to stay well away from!) were disgusted at the attitude of people in general, not so much because I'm a minor, but more so because some value human life so sacredly, yet fail to treat other humans with respect. Odd, isn't it?
 
MagicMelon said:
Signed. Those who say that reducing the fence size will cause more problems is absolute rubbish. They are galloping over 5ft fences, they're already going as fast as they can - they wont go any faster over smaller fences. I personally find it a horrific and sickening race which I refuse to watch. Its only gotten so big due to non-horsey folk who dont realise how many horses die.
Click to expand...

Erm, wrong - if you actually take the time to watch some racing you will see they go much faster over the hurdles over a shorter distance. You can see the horses back off when they approach the GN fences and by the sheer laws of physics and chemistry I'd like to see you run as fast over 100m as 1,500!
 
"more so because some value human life so sacredly, yet fail to treat other humans with respect. Odd, isn't it? "

It is not odd - it is the paradox of the world we live in & you see every day. If people valued human life (or any life) a bit better and put it before many things like religion, profits etc then the world might be a much better place. Sorry way off topic LOL
 
Alastair Down has written a fabulous piece in the Racing Post today:

IT IS simple to attack jump racing, infinitely more complex and challenging to defend it.

Saturday’s Grand National has provoked a veritable storm of protest. Some of the outrage has been from the usual suspects marching under the banner of ‘animal rights’ – whatever they may be. But a large chunk of the disgust has come from the everyday man and woman in the street, and their legitimate concerns have to be taken seriously by the racing industry, because in the final analysis we continue to ply our trade with the consent and tolerance of the general public.

And it is no use jump racing holding its nose and ducking the stark realities. Since 1988the Grand National has killed 20 horses and the spectacle of two of them quite literally laid out for eight million people to see on Saturday has stuck broadside in the craw of many people, not least certain newspaper editors or TV and radio stations hungry for controversy.

Every single argument about the legitimacy and morality of jump racing can be boiled down to one extremely uncomfortable, even disturbing, question and that is: Are you prepared to accept the death of horses as part of your sport?

We will take as read all the usual caveats and qualifications about constantly doing our damnedest to prevent horses being killed, and please let’s dispense with our customary refuge in expressions such as ‘casualties’ or horses ‘paying the ultimate
price’.

I can play with fancy words better than most but this is not the time – on Saturday some people were revolted by the sight of dead horses and they are levelling the potentially fatal charge that the Grand National in particular and, therefore, jump racing in general is cruel past the point of acceptability.

Nor is it any use to rail against the cheap sensationalism of the coverage or the twisted logic of critics for whom regard for the truth is an easily avoided inconvenience. There is no point trying to have a sane debate with someone who compares jump racing with bullfighting except to make the small point that on the racecourse everything humanly possible is done to avoid death whereas in the bullring it is fully intended to bring it about.

So we must address the burning question. If your answer is, “No, I am not prepared toaccept the death of horses as part of my sport”, then jump racing is not for you because it is a high-risk, physically dangerous activity in which fatalities are inevitable.

A lot of the problemis that jump racing’s deaths are extremely high profile. As a society we hide death away. We kill hundreds of millions of animals every year and I could show you certain modern farming methods, or the most scrupulously run abattoir, and have you puking in revulsion within minutes.

But such horrors are all hidden from view with the result that someone apparently outraged by Aintree would make no connection with their own contribution to animal carnage on a colossal scale whensitting down later with a chicken sandwich or a juicy steak.

And of course I am as upset as the next man by confronting death. A stricken animal up close is a terrible sight to behold and I couldn’t put my hand on my heart and say that if I had to face it time and again there might not come a tipping point when I could take it no more.

But I am prepared to accept the death of horses as part of my sport. The worst part for sure and the one that serves up jumping’s vilest moments. And is my conscience clear?
Yes. Is it untroubled? Most assuredly not.

Everybody loathes the death of a horse. But fatalities are just a fraction of what jump racing is about and I would behonest enough to argue that, in an increasingly sanitised, risk-denuded society, the omnipresence of danger lies at the very kernel of its appeal.

I have no argument with those who disapprove of jump racing. But with those who seek toemasculate it beyond recognition or ban it entirely I am implacably at odds.

Those who love jump racing hail from every geographical corner and inhabit all social strata of these islands. They are Everyman and they are legion.

When they make their way to Cheltenham or to Aintree it is not without trepidation of what they may see. But, taken in the round, they find something about the sight, sound and spectacle of jump racing that is spiritually uplifting and nourishing to the soul in a way that no other sport comes close to providing.

And, of course, ‘a little learning is a dangerous thing’. How many of those currently howling at jumping’s gate have ever set foot ona racecourse or tried even to begin to understand it before condemning it? There is no tyranny as great as ignorance.

I know many folk, the young in particular, who despite not being ardent racing fans try never to miss the festival because as a feast of very human joy they have found no other occasion in their year to match it.

And that joy is nurtured, raised and rammed tumultuously home into the human breast by an almost primal passion for the jumps horse in full cry. And when one is killed, is it merely marked by some flitting note of regret, or an uncaring shoulder shrug?

Not a bit of it, it is the stuff of genuine remorse, yet still a price worth the paying. The truth is that jump racing gives ordinary people avenues into zones of emotional experience that are increasingly hard to replicate elsewhere. That may render it unfashionable and sometimes uncomfortable, but it doesn’t erode my conviction that it is utterly defensible andalmost wholly admirable.
Click to expand...

I see they are to look at watering and cutting the field size. I'm all for doing everything to reduce the risk - but with jump racing, you will never eradicate the risk completely. They have run the GN on all sorts of ground, there are fatalities on them all. The Topham doesn't have 40 runners, yet horses still get killed. But if it makes people happy for a little while, fine.
 
According to the "i" newspaper the Sports Minister is urged to intervene into the GN debate. If there is such a debate then please can Alaistair Downe be involved. Such a brilliant article and such a man with words.
 
Flame_ said:
But how can The Grand National still be the Grand National if you make it significantly different?

Shorten it? Reduce the field? Lower the fences? Do away with the handicap? There will already be other races of that distance, maximum field size, fence heights and no handicap, they are just called something else, and horses die in them sometimes too. Do people not think the horses' trainers enter in the National are horses that they think will best suit this race with this distance, fence height, etc?
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How about instead of racing them they are just made to look pretty. Plaits, matching boots to jockey silk etc and then parade them round and open the phone lines x factor stylee. The one with most votes wins and we all bet on the outcome. No risk :):):):):):):)
 
A brilliant piece in todays Racing Post by Alastair Down, a man who knows what he is talking about



By Alastair Down 11:05AM 12 APR 2011

IT IS simple to attack jump racing, infinitely more complex and challenging to defend it.

Saturday’s Grand National has provoked a veritable storm of protest. Some of the outrage has been from the usual suspects marching under the banner of ‘animal rights’ – whatever they may be. But a large chunk of the disgust has come from the everyday man and woman in the street, and their legitimate concerns have to be taken seriously by the racing industry, because in the final analysis we continue to ply our trade with the consent and tolerance of the general public.

And it is no use jump racing holding its nose and ducking the stark realities. Since 1988the Grand National has killed 20 horses and the spectacle of two of them quite literally laid out for eight million people to see on Saturday has stuck broadside in the craw of many people, not least certain newspaper editors or TV and radio stations hungry for controversy.

Every single argument about the legitimacy and morality of jump racing can be boiled down to one extremely uncomfortable, even disturbing, question and that is: Are you prepared to accept the death of horses as part of your sport?

We will take as read all the usual caveats and qualifications about constantly doing our damnedest to prevent horses being killed, and please let’s dispense with our customary refuge in expressions such as ‘casualties’ or horses ‘paying the ultimate
price’.

I can play with fancy words better than most but this is not the time – on Saturday some people were revolted by the sight of dead horses and they are levelling the potentially fatal charge that the Grand National in particular and, therefore, jump racing in general is cruel past the point of acceptability.

Nor is it any use to rail against the cheap sensationalism of the coverage or the twisted logic of critics for whom regard for the truth is an easily avoided inconvenience. There is no point trying to have a sane debate with someone who compares jump racing with bullfighting except to make the small point that on the racecourse everything humanly possible is done to avoid death whereas in the bullring it is fully intended to bring it about.

So we must address the burning question. If your answer is, “No, I am not prepared toaccept the death of horses as part of my sport”, then jump racing is not for you because it is a high-risk, physically dangerous activity in which fatalities are inevitable.

A lot of the problemis that jump racing’s deaths are extremely high profile. As a society we hide death away. We kill hundreds of millions of animals every year and I could show you certain modern farming methods, or the most scrupulously run abattoir, and have you puking in revulsion within minutes.

But such horrors are all hidden from view with the result that someone apparently outraged by Aintree would make no connection with their own contribution to animal carnage on a colossal scale whensitting down later with a chicken sandwich or a juicy steak.

And of course I am as upset as the next man by confronting death. A stricken animal up close is a terrible sight to behold and I couldn’t put my hand on my heart and say that if I had to face it time and again there might not come a tipping point when I could take it no more.

But I am prepared to accept the death of horses as part of my sport. The worst part for sure and the one that serves up jumping’s vilest moments. And is my conscience clear?
Yes. Is it untroubled? Most assuredly not.

Everybody loathes the death of a horse. But fatalities are just a fraction of what jump racing is about and I would behonest enough to argue that, in an increasingly sanitised, risk-denuded society, the omnipresence of danger lies at the very kernel of its appeal.

I have no argument with those who disapprove of jump racing. But with those who seek toemasculate it beyond recognition or ban it entirely I am implacably at odds.

Those who love jump racing hail from every geographical corner and inhabit all social strata of these islands. They are Everyman and they are legion.

When they make their way to Cheltenham or to Aintree it is not without trepidation of what they may see. But, taken in the round, they find something about the sight, sound and spectacle of jump racing that is spiritually uplifting and nourishing to the soul in a way that no other sport comes close to providing.

And, of course, ‘a little learning is a dangerous thing’. How many of those currently howling at jumping’s gate have ever set foot ona racecourse or tried even to begin to understand it before condemning it? There is no tyranny as great as ignorance.

I know many folk, the young in particular, who despite not being ardent racing fans try never to miss the festival because as a feast of very human joy they have found no other occasion in their year to match it.

And that joy is nurtured, raised and rammed tumultuously home into the human breast by an almost primal passion for the jumps horse in full cry. And when one is killed, is it merely marked by some flitting note of regret, or an uncaring shoulder shrug?

Not a bit of it, it is the stuff of genuine remorse, yet still a price worth the paying. The truth is that jump racing gives ordinary people avenues into zones of emotional experience that are increasingly hard to replicate elsewhere. That may render it unfashionable and sometimes uncomfortable, but it doesn’t erode my conviction that it is utterly defensible andalmost wholly admirable.
 
Wagtail said:
I'm not surprised you were! However, you remain far calmer and more mature than those who were attacking you, who should be old enough to know better. Sadly, bullying is not confined to school playgrounds. It is a sad fact of life no matter how old you get. But it is especially bad when a load of older women bully a minor on the internet. :mad:
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Wagtai, I believe you may be absolutely right - that is if you can read bullying into what was said last night - I actually did not believe anyone was bullied - if they had this post would have been pulled by now by TFC.

Also, if OP is a minor then she should not be allowed to start a petition of any kind - that is in the same way as she is not allowed to vote.

OP has tried to twist and turn in every direction to try to get some kind of point across - I am actually unsure of what the point is but believe it has something to do with not using animals in any activity that involves risk of any kind.

I hope for her own peace of mind that she does not ever hack out on the public highway because she will be breaking every rule in her own imaginary "book"!

Oh, and someone said way back there about a comparison between the GN and endurance racing and the horses being dehydrated - are they supposed to stop half way round for a drink.... I'd like to see the authorities try to enforce that one as we all know you can take a horse to water but...
 
Starbucks said:
Oh god yes I'd be more bothered if my dog died than a passing stranger, but your own family and friends?
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I don't know if it's "normal" or not (and frankly I'm not going to lose any sleep over it), but I was more deeply affected emotionally when a horse that had been a major part of my life for 27 years died than when any of the three grandparents I knew died - as dearly as I loved them and value their influence on my life. Four years after this horse died, I am still grieving the loss to an extent. I think I "got over" the loss of my grandparents faster than that. If that makes me a monster, so be it! :(

That's not to say that I would put any animal's life above that of any human - of course, I wouldn't.

As emotionally deficient as I may be, some of the replies directed at OP have shown a startling lack of sensitivity and maturity.
 
Since being mature clearly doesnt work I shall sink to immaturity - You're a big bunch of meany bullies! The op was upset by someones comment that a horse is replacable, her point was that SHE values animal life as much as humans. And the reaction by the majority of people on this discussion was simply bullying - perhaps in a sneaky way, but it was still bullying. You ought to feel ashamed. All I can say is good for you lassiesuca, you stick to what you believe is right. I value animal life just as much (and in some cases more) as human life.

On a mature note I am not trying to belittle or insult anyone who has suffered a painful human loss, I understand there is nothing to compare and noone can measure or dictate how much pain you feel or how much you will grieve.

But I will say the same, I will not be made to feel stupid or ridiculed by the amount I grieve for a beloved pet, and noone will make me feel stupid even if, horror of horrors, I dare to grieve more for a rabbit (yes, a RABBIT) than a family member. Grow up you meanies :P
 
H&H only pull threads where there are complaints and obvious abuse. This was far more subtle as it was not specific posts but the sheer fact that so many people ganged up on one other and bombarded her with insults from 'silly girl', to 'you really need help!' The fact that you cannot see what happened as bullying really highlights how bad the problem is. It happens on every forum though. Not just here. It is one of the ugly sides of human nature. But it is also one of my pet hates. I will stick up for anyone I see being bullied whether I agree with their views or not.
 
Wagtail said:
H&H only pull threads where there are complaints and obvious abuse. This was far more subtle as it was not specific posts but the sheer fact that so many people ganged up on one other and bombarded her with insults from 'silly girl', to 'you really need help!' The fact that you cannot see what happened as bullying really highlights how bad the problem is. It happens on every forum though. Not just here. It is one of the ugly sides of human nature. But it is also one of my pet hates. I will stick up for anyone I see being bullied whether I agree with their views or not.
Click to expand...

It is one of the ugly sides, and the risks, of the internet. You can say what you like (so people think, anyway) because you are behind a computer screen. If we'd all been sat in a room discussing this, half the things that have been said wouldn't have been said. Some people feel stronger, more powerful, 'better' simply because they are sat behind a computer. I don't say anything on here that I wouldn't to someones face - and that includes using smilies, because it's amazing the offence someone can take if you put :rolleyes: at the end of it.

However, you also have to prepared to take what happens on here with a pinch of salt. At the end of the day, these people are not your friends, you don't know them, you'll never meet them. They are fictional characters behind a screen. If I am offended by something I tend to think "Yeah, well I bet you wouldn't have said that to my face", switch the computer off and rest easy knowing that that person doesn't know where I live and I don't have to speak to them again. I don't think forums are for people who get deeply hurt and offended by words, because if you post something, you are going to get a whole mix of comments back. Just close the computer down and forget about it.

I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying it's a forum. So some people called her silly. If she's clever she'll shrug the comments of some internet unknown username off.
 
Thank you for copying this in KautoStar1. Superbly written.

KautoStar1 said:
A brilliant piece in todays Racing Post by Alastair Down, a man who knows what he is talking about



By Alastair Down 11:05AM 12 APR 2011

IT IS simple to attack jump racing, infinitely more complex and challenging to defend it.

Saturday’s Grand National has provoked a veritable storm of protest. Some of the outrage has been from the usual suspects marching under the banner of ‘animal rights’ – whatever they may be. But a large chunk of the disgust has come from the everyday man and woman in the street, and their legitimate concerns have to be taken seriously by the racing industry, because in the final analysis we continue to ply our trade with the consent and tolerance of the general public.

And it is no use jump racing holding its nose and ducking the stark realities. Since 1988the Grand National has killed 20 horses and the spectacle of two of them quite literally laid out for eight million people to see on Saturday has stuck broadside in the craw of many people, not least certain newspaper editors or TV and radio stations hungry for controversy.

Every single argument about the legitimacy and morality of jump racing can be boiled down to one extremely uncomfortable, even disturbing, question and that is: Are you prepared to accept the death of horses as part of your sport?

We will take as read all the usual caveats and qualifications about constantly doing our damnedest to prevent horses being killed, and please let’s dispense with our customary refuge in expressions such as ‘casualties’ or horses ‘paying the ultimate
price’.

I can play with fancy words better than most but this is not the time – on Saturday some people were revolted by the sight of dead horses and they are levelling the potentially fatal charge that the Grand National in particular and, therefore, jump racing in general is cruel past the point of acceptability.

Nor is it any use to rail against the cheap sensationalism of the coverage or the twisted logic of critics for whom regard for the truth is an easily avoided inconvenience. There is no point trying to have a sane debate with someone who compares jump racing with bullfighting except to make the small point that on the racecourse everything humanly possible is done to avoid death whereas in the bullring it is fully intended to bring it about.

So we must address the burning question. If your answer is, “No, I am not prepared toaccept the death of horses as part of my sport”, then jump racing is not for you because it is a high-risk, physically dangerous activity in which fatalities are inevitable.

A lot of the problemis that jump racing’s deaths are extremely high profile. As a society we hide death away. We kill hundreds of millions of animals every year and I could show you certain modern farming methods, or the most scrupulously run abattoir, and have you puking in revulsion within minutes.

But such horrors are all hidden from view with the result that someone apparently outraged by Aintree would make no connection with their own contribution to animal carnage on a colossal scale whensitting down later with a chicken sandwich or a juicy steak.

And of course I am as upset as the next man by confronting death. A stricken animal up close is a terrible sight to behold and I couldn’t put my hand on my heart and say that if I had to face it time and again there might not come a tipping point when I could take it no more.

But I am prepared to accept the death of horses as part of my sport. The worst part for sure and the one that serves up jumping’s vilest moments. And is my conscience clear?
Yes. Is it untroubled? Most assuredly not.

Everybody loathes the death of a horse. But fatalities are just a fraction of what jump racing is about and I would behonest enough to argue that, in an increasingly sanitised, risk-denuded society, the omnipresence of danger lies at the very kernel of its appeal.

I have no argument with those who disapprove of jump racing. But with those who seek toemasculate it beyond recognition or ban it entirely I am implacably at odds.

Those who love jump racing hail from every geographical corner and inhabit all social strata of these islands. They are Everyman and they are legion.

When they make their way to Cheltenham or to Aintree it is not without trepidation of what they may see. But, taken in the round, they find something about the sight, sound and spectacle of jump racing that is spiritually uplifting and nourishing to the soul in a way that no other sport comes close to providing.

And, of course, ‘a little learning is a dangerous thing’. How many of those currently howling at jumping’s gate have ever set foot ona racecourse or tried even to begin to understand it before condemning it? There is no tyranny as great as ignorance.

I know many folk, the young in particular, who despite not being ardent racing fans try never to miss the festival because as a feast of very human joy they have found no other occasion in their year to match it.

And that joy is nurtured, raised and rammed tumultuously home into the human breast by an almost primal passion for the jumps horse in full cry. And when one is killed, is it merely marked by some flitting note of regret, or an uncaring shoulder shrug?

Not a bit of it, it is the stuff of genuine remorse, yet still a price worth the paying. The truth is that jump racing gives ordinary people avenues into zones of emotional experience that are increasingly hard to replicate elsewhere. That may render it unfashionable and sometimes uncomfortable, but it doesn’t erode my conviction that it is utterly defensible andalmost wholly admirable.
Click to expand...
 
teagreen said:
It is one of the ugly sides, and the risks, of the internet. You can say what you like (so people think, anyway) because you are behind a computer screen. If we'd all been sat in a room discussing this, half the things that have been said wouldn't have been said. Some people feel stronger, more powerful, 'better' simply because they are sat behind a computer. I don't say anything on here that I wouldn't to someones face - and that includes using smilies, because it's amazing the offence someone can take if you put :rolleyes: at the end of it.

However, you also have to prepared to take what happens on here with a pinch of salt. At the end of the day, these people are not your friends, you don't know them, you'll never meet them. They are fictional characters behind a screen. If I am offended by something I tend to think "Yeah, well I bet you wouldn't have said that to my face", switch the computer off and rest easy knowing that that person doesn't know where I live and I don't have to speak to them again. I don't think forums are for people who get deeply hurt and offended by words, because if you post something, you are going to get a whole mix of comments back. Just close the computer down and forget about it.

I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying it's a forum. So some people called her silly. If she's clever she'll shrug the comments of some internet unknown username off.
Click to expand...

The problem is internet bullying is real. You or I may be able to shrug it off and not let it bother us, but many people can't. This is especially true of the young. Young people have been driven to suicide because of internet bullies. Yes, really. So do not just shrug it off. We all have a duty to ensure we are not participating in this kind of behaviour. Okay, so this ismild compared to some instances I have seen, but it was bullying none the less, without doubt.
 
I have signed the petition from the point of reducing the number of runners. I am concerned that falls which do not result in death or destruction of the horse appear to be largely disregarded. Being 4 legged horses are relatively stable creatures and become distressed with adversely affected confidence even by relatively minor falls never mind pain and discomfort caused by superficial injury/bruising. Having worked with horses over may years (showjumping, breaking and schooling) I believe each fall is significant even if the horse survives. In any event one would hope that the popularity of the event will be diminished following this years effort if nothing is seen to be done about "the problem".
 
Chrissy Gal said:
I have signed the petition from the point of reducing the number of runners. I am concerned that falls which do not result in death or destruction of the horse appear to be largely disregarded. Being 4 legged horses are relatively stable creatures and become distressed with adversely affected confidence even by relatively minor falls never mind pain and discomfort caused by superficial injury/bruising. Having worked with horses over may years (showjumping, breaking and schooling) I believe each fall is significant even if the horse survives. In any event one would hope that the popularity of the event will be diminished following this years effort if nothing is seen to be done about "the problem".
Click to expand...

So do you want all jump racing banned?
 
I think that this thread has surely run it's course hasn't it? (s'cuse the pun!)As usual there is no conclusion because there are strong feelings on both sides of the argument and it seems no acceptance of these differences. It so reminds me of the hunting debate, going nowhere, so, can we leave it to the racing authorities who will I am sure, under public pressure, review the safety of the GN.

As I have said before, ALL equestrian sport has it's risks to both horse and rider, there are even plenty of hacking related accidents detailed on these forums. To make the GN totally safe would be impossible as it is for any equestrian 'event', it could be banned, but that might be the thin end of the wedge, as, like it did with LACS from hunting with hounds to even angling, attention would then turn to something else, eventing maybe?

To eradicate the risk is to ban all equestrian sport, not a decision anyone on here would care to see I'm sure.
 
I would certainly not wish for all or any jump racing to be banned, this would have a much greater detrimental effect on equine welfare. The point is that more can and needs to be done to make some races safer which is why I advocate reduction in the number of starters to reduce the inceased risk caused by horses jumping and falling eas it appears to me that horses jumping and/or falling directly in the paths of others.
 
lassiesuca said:
I've set up a petition in the aim to get lots of support and hopefully take it to the BRS and get them to just consider that the course perhaps needs some of it's safety aspects reconsider.

I'm not suggesting we ban the race, but if we can reduce the number of horses on the course, perhaps lower the fences and even reduce the length they have to run, you can still enjoy the race, and it will hopefully reduce the number of fatalities.

We do see it in eventing, however not as often, because safety is considered, obviously we can't prevent accidents entirely, but I believe we can reduce the risk.

In the past 11 years, 21 horses have been killed on GN, lets try and reduce that number. We're all horse lovers here! So let's just do the right thing :o


http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/grandnationalsafety/
Thanks for your support. I don't want to cause a fight, I just want to raise awareness

xx
Click to expand...

Approximately 18,000 foals are born into the closely-related British and Irish racing industries each year, yet only around 40% go on to become racers. Those horses who do not make the grade may be slaughtered for meat or repeatedly change hands in a downward spiral of neglect. Of those horses who do go on to race, around 420 are raced to death every year.

This is the best petition to sign.
http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/f/ACTIVE/petition/?id=10&campaign=horse
 
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