Animal Aid

Most people regard horse racing as a harmless sport in which the animals are willing participants who thoroughly enjoy the thrill. The truth is that, behind the scenes, lies a story of immense suffering.

Approximately 18,000 foals are born into the closely-related British and Irish racing industries each year, yet only around 40% go on to become racers. Those horses who do not make the grade may be slaughtered for meat or repeatedly change hands in a downward spiral of neglect. Of those horses who do go on to race, around 400 are raced to death every year.

Beneath its glamorous façade, commercial horse racing is a ruthless industry motivated by financial gain and prestige. Cruelty? You can bet on it!

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Horse Racing Awareness Week

Horse Racing Awareness Week takes place in the seven days leading up to the Grand National meeting in Aintree - a notoriously hazardous three-day event that has killed 35 horses over the last decade.

Read more about Horse Racing Awareness Week

Ban the Whip

Using pain in an effort to control an animal is morally repugnant to anyone with respect for animals. The evidence shows, in any case, that such violence is counter-productive in terms of safety and in producing winners.

Read more about our 'ban the whip' campaign

Capped For Victory: The story of a racing industry victim (03-07-2009)

Grand National star horse set for retirement after Animal Aid warns of potential court action (15-05-2009)

Course accused of 'cold-hearted complacency' as six horses die in one day at Killarney (11-05-2009)

Five Horses Killed at 2009 Grand National Meeting (04-04-2009)

Aintree 2009 Claims its Fourth Victim (03-04-2009)

The ‘Best’ and the ‘Worst’ Killed at Aintree (02-04-2009)

Threefold Increase in Horse Deaths on All-Weather Racecourses (02-04-2009)

Animal Aid brands the Grand National a 'sick oddity' (26-03-2009)

Race Horses Need Your Help (26-03-2009)

As Cheltenham Kills Another Horse, Animal Aid Fears for Denman (13-03-2009)

Full Campaign News Archive