Total Grand National Death Toll Rises to Two Horses
The Long Mile and Houx Gris have died at the Grand National festival this year, following fatal injuries.
Twenty-nine horses have died as a result of racing at the Grand National meeting since 2010. Horses used for racing commonly die of fatal injuries such as broken backs or are killed after sustaining broken legs.
The Grand National Disgrace
At 4.5 miles, the headline Grand National race is one of the longest and most hazardous in the world – the high risk factor is what makes it famous. Almost every year, horses lose their lives during the three-day festival, sustaining horrific and often fatal injuries at notorious fences such as The Chair, Becher’s Brook, and Canal Turn.
Every time horses are forced to jump these excessively high obstacles, it puts tremendous pressure on their slender front legs and they risk broken legs, necks, and backs.
How Horses Suffer in Racing
Horses bred for greed and speed are pushed beyond their natural abilities and forced to run at breakneck pace. Those who don’t sustain horrific injuries on the track may suffer heart attacks, bleed from their lungs, or develop painful ulcers or other health problems that come from being pushed to their breaking point for human amusement.
In some cases, drugs – both legal and illegal – have been administered by trainers and even veterinarians to mask pain so that horses who should have been recuperating could instead be forced to run with injuries, making them worse.
A Survivor’s ‘Life’ After Racing
Even those who make it off the track alive are unlikely to live happily ever after. Every year, thousands of horses – including spent Thoroughbreds and those who don’t “make the grade” – are discarded like used betting slips.
They’re abandoned, neglected, or sold for slaughter, their flesh ending up either in dog or cat food or as “prime cuts” for human consumption in Europe and Asia.
©Animal Aid
What You Can Do
The Grand National is a national disgrace. Will you urge these companies to withdraw their financial support of this shameful spectacle in which horses are raced to death?
