Racehorse abuse in Australia

twiggy2

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Animals should treated with dignity and not subjected to pain but personally I think that trying to rehome every racehorse that retires is unachievable at best and subjecting many to ending up in the wrong hands at worst.
Slaughter is a viable option to my mind if carries out in a way that is as stress free to the animals as possible.
I personally object to the use of cattle prods but in Australia they are legal and freely avaliable so I would guess it's ok to use them on other animals at a slaughter house but the objection is to horses in particular being treated this way-that I don't understand.
 

cauda equina

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Animals should treated with dignity and not subjected to pain but personally I think that trying to rehome every racehorse that retires is unachievable at best and subjecting many to ending up in the wrong hands at worst.
Slaughter is a viable option to my mind if carries out in a way that is as stress free to the animals as possible.
I personally object to the use of cattle prods but in Australia they are legal and freely avaliable so I would guess it's ok to use them on other animals at a slaughter house but the objection is to horses in particular being treated this way-that I don't understand.
My objection is to horses being bolt-gunned repeatedly, and kicked and shocked while they are dying
Euthanasia is of course a viable option for horses who are no longer useful but it seems that some of these slaughtermen went out of their way to give these horses an awful death
 

twiggy2

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My objection is to horses being bolt-gunned repeatedly, and kicked and shocked while they are dying
Euthanasia is of course a viable option for horses who are no longer useful but it seems that some of these slaughtermen went out of their way to give these horses an awful death
You male my point very well for me, I object to that happening to any animal, a quick and as stress and pain-free death is a must.
 

honetpot

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There has been so much research done on the least stressful, to the animal, way to slaughter them, you wonder in how anyone can think this is right. It’s poor stockman ship of the highest order. Most slaughter men want it quick and clean or it holds up the line, never mind thinking about welfare.
For the sake of a few hundred pounds always have your horse shot or euthanised at home.
We have I think only two UK slaughter houses (someone may know better)licensed for horses so if you are selling your horse for pennies the chances are it will travel a long way to get there. If you are lucky the local hunt will do it, for the cost of a fancy rug.
 

milliepops

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the video made me feel particularly sad because my ex racer is a fairly useless specimen who would quite possibly have ended up there if fate had meant he lived in a different country to here. Lots of anxious horses all grouped together waiting to go, lost little brown faces caught in the camera. :(
I am not against humane slaughter of horses, i think a swift death is better than lingering on or being passed between homes, and I agree with twiggy I can't see how the numbers can add up to rehome every single horse out of racing. But the places shown in the video are doing those animals a great dis-service. I don't know how those involved can sleep at night.
 
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There are fates worse than death and some racehorses are so institutionalised or dangerous that they can't have a life outside of racing. But the torture these poor horses - and probably other animals in those slaughter houses is not acceptable in the slightest! I hope the people responsible are hung drawn and quartered!
 

TPO

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I haven't clicked on any of these links but I've seen either the same or a similar video before.

Animal welfare in australia is known to be below par, especially the slaughter industry.

I dont know how you fix it, the racehorse industry in particular. The stables arent going to pay for humane pts at home when they make money selling to slaughter
 

Mule

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I haven't clicked on any of these links but I've seen either the same or a similar video before.

Animal welfare in australia is known to be below par, especially the slaughter industry.

I dont know how you fix it, the racehorse industry in particular. The stables arent going to pay for humane pts at home when they make money selling to slaughter
Better regulation of abbatoirs like CCTV.
 

TPO

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Better regulation of abbatoirs like CCTV.

Oh absolutely but who's funding it? That's the crux of the matter

The fact that a large % of the country is suffering with extreme drought and stock is dying all over the place, suicide is up and farmers can't afford freight for hay yet the government isn't helping at all would indicate to me that policing slaughter houses (sadly) isnt on their agenda...
 

Mule

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Oh absolutely but who's funding it? That's the crux of the matter

The fact that a large % of the country is suffering with extreme drought and stock is dying all over the place, suicide is up and farmers can't afford freight for hay yet the government isn't helping at all would indicate to me that policing slaughter houses (sadly) isnt on their agenda...
Good point. It's shocking that the government won't help the farmers. It's not a poor country, they could surely afford to.
 
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milliepops

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CCTV in abattoirs would be a step forward IMO, but the problem that the video explained, is that there seems to be some corruption or at least collusion in the industry that is allowing race horse and trotters to end up in abattoirs when they are recorded as still being active in the industry or retired into new homes.
I think I've remembered it correctly that the NSW racing authorities committed to rehoming all animals and tracking them all on a database. They were not permitted to end up at the abattoir directly or indirectly out of racing, yet the investigation showed hundreds upon hundreds of them passing through horse sales and going straight there. Some of them were still recorded on the online racing database as being active in the sport even after they had been slaughtered.

How are the owners/trainers not complicit in this if that's the case?
Something very odd is going on, the investigators estimated that c4000 horses were passing through abattoirs annually when the industry's own figures is less than 1% of horses leaving racing, which equates to 34 per year. it just doesn't add up.
So yeah I think CCTV would be a step forward for the welfare of all animals going to slaughter - requiring multiple bolts to kill them is totally unacceptable as is the treatment - violence, kicking, electric shocks etc- while they are alive. but these horses aren't officially there in the first place, so it's (oh god) shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.

(correct me if I've remembered the numbers wrong, I don't want to watch it again)
 

fburton

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What’s the point of CCTV unless someone is watching it and acting if necessary?
One possibility would be to stream the footage as webcam, or to have recordings available for download and therefore potentially checkable. This is easily doable with technology today, and not necessarily much of an extra expense.
 

Orangehorse

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I don't want to watch it, it sound utterly horrid. I'm not against slaughter for horses, but it must be done humanely, so let's hope this makes an impact in Australia.

Of course, in the USA, stopping slaughter had the worse consequence of horses being shipped thousands of miles to Canada or Mexico where the conditions are worse.
 

Mule

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I haven't watched the video. I don't think abuse in abbatoirs will end until CCTV is brought in but more than that, there has to be a way of cycling workers so that compassion fatigue is not an issue.
True, It's not likely thst most workers start in the job planning to be cruel. There's always some of course.
 

milliepops

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I had not appreciated that the abattoir that featured heavily in the video was actually not allowed to use those cattle prods :
from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ghter-hypocrisy-irresponsibility-on-all-sides
"Export abattoirs such as Meramist must also comply with European Union rules around animal welfare, including those banning the use of the electric prodders on horses, and are required to have an Australian government vet on site while slaughter is taking place."
 

TheMule

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I think we lost the one up north (turners/red lion) https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/red-lion-abattoir-closes-due-to-risk-to-public-health-386988 and Potters were only doing one day a week and I have vague recollection that may have stopped too but I might have been imagining that now I'm out of area.

Potter’s are running and busier than they were, partly due to their more accessible location, partly as they're now the only one (which is a crying shame, horses are being shipped over from Ireland and travelling down from Scotland to be slaughtered near Swindon)
I spend a bit of time there and it is as dignified an end as possible, the guys there are very quiet with the horses, they're shot with a bullet and death is instant. They welcome visitors but you do have to have health and safety training to go in.
 

ester

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Thanks for the clarification TM, I wasn't sure and it's not always the easiest thing to check out whether I'm remembering things right or not!
 

The Fuzzy Furry

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