Take action to help race horses

The reality facing horses in racing is very different.

• Around 200 horses are killed as a result of on-course racing injuries every year.
• In 2022, the British and Irish racing industries sent 1,161 horses who held passports from the racing industry to slaughterhouses.
• Horses are the only animals who are hit, in public, during a ‘sporting’ event. Shockingly, jockeys still frequently breach the whip rules (they are allowed to hit their horses six times in a Flat race and seven times in a Jump race). During the first six months of 2023, there were 370 incidents of rule breaking by jockeys relating to their use of the whip – mostly for excessive beatings.

Animal Aid has also discovered, via Freedom of Information requests to the Food Standards Agency and to the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine in Ireland, that horses who hold Weatherby’s passports (the official passport issuer of the racing industry) are still being slaughtered for their meat in England and Ireland.

• In 2022, 534 horses were slaughtered in England. Of that number, 144 had Weatherby’s passports.
• In 2022, 1,562 horses were slaughtered in Ireland. Of that number, 1,017 had Weatherby’s passports.