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Time to call an end to the Grand Natonal

9:17am Wednesday 27th April 2011 in Letters

ANIMAL Aid has been inundated with messages of support and requests for information following the horrific deaths of Dooney's Gate and Ornais at the 2011 Grand National.

In its defence of this dangerous and gruelling race, the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) stated that 'welfare measures' were implemented after the two horses were killed, which consisted of bypassing the two fences where dead horses lay on the other side.

The BHA also lauded jockeys for dismounting their exhausted and overheated horses at the end of the race so that the horses could be cooled down by handlers, though surely a kinder option would have been not to make them race in those conditions in the first place.

Avoiding two fences and dismounting horses at the end of the race are hardly welfare measures to boast about.

Just 19 of the 40 horses completed the course - or, to put it another way, 21 horses did not finish and two of that number were killed. Twenty horses have been killed on the Grand National course since 2000.

Measures to make the course and the fences safer have failed. The race is too crowded, too long and too difficult.

It's time to call for an end to the Grand National.

Dene Stansall, Animal Aid.

Comments(7)

bob wirral says...
9:55am Wed 27 Apr 11

i agree lets stop all horse racing and riding, then lets stop people owning cats, dogs and other pets.
then we can all sit round a camp fire, eat lentil soup and see if we can come up with some other harebrained schemes to take the fun out of everything.

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spenser says...
12:34pm Wed 27 Apr 11

Measures to make the course and the fences safer have failed. The race is too crowded, too long and too difficult.



No they haven't and no it isn't.

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Spiffy says...
10:16pm Wed 27 Apr 11

The only creatures who could say with absolute certainty whether it is too long, difficult or dangerous are the horses themselves.
...
Then again...someone very clever could do the calculations and set up an equivalent course for humans to run around jumping high fences whilst carrying a small child armed with a whip on their backs.
...
Then anyone who disagreed with the above could put their money where their mouth is...if they survived.

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bickyboy says...
7:59am Fri 29 Apr 11

Full marks to Animal Aid for raising the issue. The National is promoted as some kind of annual family day out when Mum, Dad and the kids can have a harmless flutter and get all excited in front of the TeeVee till their two-quid-each-way bet goes flat on its face at Beecher's Brook. In actual fact its a race which is far too long, far too crowded, over obstacles which are designed to be dangerous to make falls more likely, and thus the race more exciting for all those once-a-year punters. It often kills horses, or as the BBC would have it, the National creates "obstacles". The race needs shortening to two thirds of its current length, the bigger fences should be removed altogether, and the field ought to be reduced by a third. The "sports fans" and management of the National who think its OK to kill a couple of horses each year in the name of family fun need to be taken to Aintree, roped up to the back of a 4X4, and dragged through a few of the fences at thirty mph in nothing but their birthday suits till they get the message about what this race REALLY is: a slaughter of animals which in my opinion have a better claim to the description of "Mans Best Friend" than any dog.

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spenser says...
10:04am Sat 30 Apr 11

What utter rubbish.

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rover600 says...
8:32am Sun 1 May 11

bob wirral wrote:
i agree lets stop all horse racing and riding, then lets stop people owning cats, dogs and other pets.
then we can all sit round a camp fire, eat lentil soup and see if we can come up with some other harebrained schemes to take the fun out of everything.
Wirral Bob, you need reporting to the Royal Society for he prevention of cruelty to lentils, they have feelings too, plunging them into cold water and drowning them overnight then boiling them up or worse still canning them and making them sit on Asda's shelves for weeks indeed!

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bickyboy says...
5:42pm Mon 9 May 11

spenser wrote:
What utter rubbish.
What is, Spenser? The National, or the idea that we should want to stop horses dying unnecessarily? If the former, damned right; if the latter, please explain whats desirable about animals perishing in the name of so called "sport" for no good reason?

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