 CALL
FOR GRAND NATIONAL BAN AFTER ANOTHER YEAR OF 'CARNAGE'
Statement from Animal Aid on the 2004 Grand National
Animal Aid is relieved that the 2004 Grand National was
completed without any horse fatalities but repeats its call for the race to
be banned following scenes that one television commentator described as 'carnage'.
Nine horses fell at notorious Beecher's Brook on the first circuit and two
more the second time around. Just 11 exhausted horses - out of 39 starters -
were able to complete the 30 fences over a gruelling four and a half miles.
The deliberately-hazardous race could so easily have produced equine fatalities
- one horse died last year and two the year before. The victims are shot following
breaks or fractures of the leg, back and shoulder. Others have suffered heart
attacks.
The 2004 event could still produce casualties if owners decide injuries received
during the race render their animals commercially redundant. The injured animals
would be destroyed. Animal Aid will be monitoring the future of all runners.
Twenty-nine horses have died since 1997 during the three-day Aintree
meet - eight of them in the Grand National itself. The deaths are evidence of
the suffering that is an intrinsic part of the event. Animal Aid believes that
such carnage cannot be justified in the name of 'sport' and is therefore calling
for a ban on the Grand National.
.........................
Background
-
March 27 to April 3 was Animal Aid's Horse
Racing Awareness Week. The annual event is timed to coincide
with the running of the Grand National - a deliberately punishing and hazardous
race. The aim is to alert the public to this hidden suffering and dispel
the myth of a 'harmless flutter'. People are asked to boycott the Grand
National. Free horse racing information packs are available by calling 01732
354032.
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Every year, around 300 horses are raced to death around the country,
having suffered broken legs, necks, backs and other serious injuries. They
die on the courses themselves or during training. A much larger number of
animals are disposed of at the end of their careers, or because they fail
to make the grade. Some end up as pet food, are fed to hunting hounds, or
sold from owner to owner in a downward spiral of neglect. Of equal concern
are the endemic levels of stress-related illness, such as bleeding lungs
and gastric ulcers.
Notes to Editors
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Full background on the racing industry can be seen at
www.animalaid.org.uk/racing.
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For more information contact Andrew Tyler on 01732 364546
ext 25.
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We have an ISDN line for broadcast-quality interviews.
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