Tragic accidents are not new to jumps racing, but seven unfortunate spectators at the Warrnambool Grand Annual Steeple on May 5th discovered, people are not safe either. Jumps racing has no place in a society that calls itself civilised.
This distressing incident again highlights the dangers that jumps racing poses to horses, jockeys and even spectators, and that Victoria and South Australia — the only states left to allow jumps racing — must ban the ‘sport’ to prevent further inevitable injuries and deaths.
Since the lifting of a temporary suspension in Victoria in 2009, jumps races in Victoria and South Australia have killed a further fifteen horses on the track. Five horses — Casa Boy, Hammerblow, Squire Rex, Java Star and Shine The Armour — have been killed within the first five weeks of the 2011 racing season alone. The death toll will continue to rise until this ‘sport’ is banned for good.
The Victorian and South Australian Governments deem it acceptable to have an ‘allowable death quota’ for horses (the ‘target’ fatality rate set by industry is about 15 times that of flat racing). So long as they permit jumps racing to continue, they share the responsibility for every horse dying on the tracks, and every punter maimed or injured. Please add your voice and let them know that the community will no longer tolerate the Government endorsing this cruelty.
Please take action today and help to end this deadly ‘sport’!
Jumps racing must be stopped, there should be no exceptions, no horses should have to die for a sport…it is plain wrong no matter how you look at it, just cruel.