Breeding & Racing Magazine

Call For Jumps Ban After Death On Opening Day

Anti-jumps racing activists “have renewed calls for an immediate end to the sport” following the death of a horse on the opening day of the 2011 Victorian season, reported The Herald-Sun. Victorian Advocates For Animals president Lawrence Pope “called on racing administrators to respect public decency & the welfare of horses” after 5YO hurdler Casa Boy had to be euthanased following a fall at Warrnambool yesterday. Pope declared: “It is about time Racing Victoria showed some corporate responsibility & some public decency & stopped this before it goes any further & cancels the season. What has happened down there (at Warrnambool) is an outrage. This is the perpetuation of an activity that the people of Victoria have decided they want abolished.” Pope summed up: “Racing & jumping horses at the same time is inherently dangerous, it is unacceptably deadly & the evidence of that was provided in spades at Warrnambool today. They are not accidents; they are annual events & they are entirely predictable.” Meanwhile Elio Celotto, campaign manager for activist group the Coalition For The Protection Of Racehorses, also called for Racing Victoria “to ban jumps racing” & announced his group is “planning a protest in the Melbourne CBD” today. Celotto added: “What is Racing Victoria waiting for? They keep trying to revive a sport that is no longer popular because it is cruel & dangerous. What happened today was no accident & it will happen again.” However Australian Jumping Racing president Rodney Rae retorted the racing industry was “doing a good job of reducing fatalities”. Rae said that while the death “is disappointing, fatalities are an inevitable part of jumps racing. There hasn't been a jumps racing season where we haven't had a fatality, but our objective is to reduce them & we have been doing a very good job of doing that the last couple of years. In the 25-30 years of recording statistics, last year is the lowest number of fatalities.”