Well it appears that those precious things that wear all those pretty colours while sitting on a horses back whipping it to make it run faster are having a little cry that the Australian Racing Board (ARB) won’t reverse its ruling restricting the number of times that they able to use the whip “at their discretion” on a horse that they are riding in the last 100m of the race.
Ultimately the jockeys, who claim to have industry backing for their protest appear to have no other reason for their stance, apart from the lure of the almighty dollar. They believe that they should be able to use their own discretion as to the number of times that a horse may be whipped if it is in contention to win the race. Which would result in a whipping free for all. Yet, it was this same industry that backed the ARB to pass these rules in the first place.
The motivation of the jockey’s can only be that of a purely selfish financial reason.
There will be arguments coming from the jockeys corners claiming that by not being able to whip the horse at their discretion that they are not able to do their job to the best of their ability. Which will in turn will cost the gullible gambling public, the trainers and the owners money.
Not once has there been any mention of the safety of the horse or the impact that “open season” on whipping will have.
It is a sad indictment of our society that the brutal practice of horse racing is a multi-billion dollar industry, and as such is virtually untouchable in respects of any sort of reform that would restrict the abuse that horses have to endure in the name of this “sport”.
This article was written by the founder of VeganPolice.com.au, Cameron Blewett.
Cameron is a long term vegan (30+yrs), and is passionate about veganism, and helping people to understand more about it and giving other animals equal consideration.
You can find Cameron’s other rants on his website, CameronBlewett.blog
This is yet another infuriating example of how greed and lack of compassion (and ‘law’)benefits humans and harms animals.I abhor horse racing with all my being and this just furthers my hatred of what is most definitely NOT a ‘sport’.
The only good thing that may come out of all this is the negative publicity it is giving jockeys and horse racing generally…probably won’t make a scrap of difference though…money is our god. 🙁