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SCREEN LIFTED ON HORSERACING BRUTALITY
Midyan Blue, a 10-year-old chestnut gelding, fell in the last race of the day, shattering his leg. One racegoer described the horse's injury as 'appalling...there was just skin holding the leg on'. While the horse was being put down, a screen was erected to shelter racegoers from seeing the consequences of their 'harmless flutter'. However, as the dead horse was being lifted into the back of a horse ambulance the screen was accidentally lowered, thereby providing a full view of the dead animal's leg being sawn off - standard procedure in such cases. The scene provoked an outcry in Scotland. Ardent defender of the industry, television commentator John McCririck, said: 'Someone must be held responsible. Tragedies can happen at any event, but is there any need to parade it in public?... I'm always saying 'come racing', but if people go racing they don't want to see this horror.' In other words, the problem for the industry is not the routine carnage but punters being able to get a close-up view of it? |
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Racegoers
at Musselburgh racecourse in Scotland were witness to the brutal reality of
the horse racing industry. (Daily Record, June 6, 2000).
