Royal Ascot – A glamorous front for animal cruelty

Race horses, deemed to be the ‘best’, will race for huge cash prizes for humans. It is a scary world even for the winners (horses who have won thousands of pounds for their owners have ended up in the slaughterhouse) – let alone the horses who fail in training and never see a racecourse. Despite attempts by the racing industry to cover up the systemic cruelty, and claims they ‘care’ about animal welfare, the truth has never been clearer. Horses used for sport are not treated as the individual, sentient animals they are – but as commodities whose value depends entirely on the profit margins their bodies can make. 

In 2024, 598 horses with racing industry passports were sent to the slaughterhouse. Others enter a downwards spiral of neglect, where they are sold from owner to owner – their ‘price’ decreasing at each sale, most likely alongside their welfare. The racing industry boasts that many ex-race horses are ‘retired’ into different equestrian ‘careers’ (such as eventing or polo) – but this is simply a move from one industry of abuse into another. Race horses who go onto become stallions and broodmares – many of whom will have raced at Royal Ascot – will experience cruelty. The life of a horse used for breeding entails a cycle of repeated abuse until they have nothing left to give. 

 Horses are killed on racecourses; suffer injuries including heart attacks, broken necks, broken legs and bleeding lungs; are brutally beaten with a whip, killed by ‘knackermen’ and slaughtered in abattoirs. They face separation from their mums, gruelling training regimes, and the constant threat of being ‘culled’. 

 Animals don’t exist for human entertainment. Help take action for horses now! 

How you can help horses and end horse racing:

• Read our new report Victims of Abuse in British Horse Racing
• Visit Animal Aid’s Race Horse Death Watch site
• Order campaign resources such as leaflets and posters by emailing info@animalaid.org.uk 
• Share our social media posts