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Horse racing has managed to avoid much of the scrutiny that greyhound racing faced in 2021, but a string of recent incidents show that the horse racing industry isn’t without its faults either.
And a last minute shipment from Timaru rounded out a bumper year for the live export industry, which is showing few signs of slowing down despite a ban on the horizon.
Animal rights in Aotearoa New Zealand. Animal Matters is SAFE's podcast about all things animal rights and the issues impacting animals in Aotearoa. Will Appelbe and Courtney White discuss the latest current affairs impacting animals, the decisions of policymakers and government, and the complexities that surround the exploitation of animals.
Tena koe, nau mai haere mai. My name is Will Appelbe and you’re listening to Animal Matters.
Horse racing has managed to avoid much of the scrutiny that greyhound racing faced in 2021, but a string of recent incidents show that the horse racing industry isn’t without its faults either.
And a last minute shipment from Timaru rounded out a bumper year for the live export industry, which is showing few signs of slowing down despite a ban on the horizon.
Animal Matters is bought to you by SAFE for animals. We release new episodes every week, so make sure you subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or whatever your favourite podcast platform is. You can also subscribe to our newsletter at safe.org.nz/animalmatters.
So, on the day before New Year’s Eve last year, the New Zealand Herald published an article with the headline “Who won New Zealand sport in 2021”. Normally I’d ignore an article like this seeing as I don’t have a lot of interest in most sports, but there was a curious line that caught my attention.
You see these types of articles around New Year, and they can be about anything. Business, politics, who were the winners, who were the losers. No doubt it’s an easy article a writer can churn out before taking their holiday break that a publisher can schedule to publish while everyone’s out of the office. And I suppose they do serve a purpose, in that they recap the year that was and analyse some trends to look for in the new year.
Anyone, the curious line in general. The Herald said, “Horse racing is a winner basically because it's not greyhound racing.” Which did make me laugh. Because, yeah, regardless of which way you look at it, greyhound racing had a terrible year in 2021.
The article goes on to say “Wherever you sit on the racing ethical scale – animal abuse or giving horses a life that's pretty luxurious until you beat them to run faster, and occasionally euthanise them – it's a lot better than greyhound racing.”
And it’s hard not to agree with that. Horse racing has problems but on balance, the racing industry’s animal welfare record is far worse for dogs than it is for horses.
But horse racing isn’t immune to the problems that greyhound racing is facing. And there are some very recent examples.
Just last week, the horse Apache Woman suffered a displaced fracture in one of her knees following a race that she won. The jocky and owners didn’t even notice until after the horse was delivered home. They told the Herald, “she was a bit lame when they put her on the float, and even more lame when she got home.”
One would have thought that would have sounded alarm bells before they attempted to transport the horse.
This was after a 1200 meter race, which Apache Woman won. So either from her training or due to whipping, this horse was compelled to gallop on a severely injured knee to such an extent that she came first in the race.
The thought of putting weight on a dislocated knee, let alone running on a dislocated knee, makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand. The pain must be excruciating.
Lucky for the horse, she won’t be euthanised. Instead, she’ll be retired to the broodmare paddock. In other words, she’ll be used for breeding more racehorses. The cycle continues.
And a few weeks earlier on New Years Day, there were some horrific scenes at Ellerslie Raceway in Auckland. The horse Gold Watch stumbled on the home stretch while the jockey, Danielle Johnson tried to weave through a cluster of horses. Both rider and horse suffered a broken leg. Johnson was sent to hospital, and Gold Watch was euthanised.
This is what really bugs me when people try to claim that racehorses, greyhounds and bulls that buck in rodeos are ‘athletes’. If I were an athlete, I’d get to choose the sport I participate in, and whether or not I compete. Animals don’t have that choice. They’re bred specifically for that purpose, and in the case of horses, whipped to perform to the standard expected of them.
And when a human athlete is injured they’re rehabilitated. Hell, I broke my leg last year and now I’m completely fine. Danielle Johnson, the jockey who broke their leg at Ellesmere Raceway will undoubtedly make a full recovery after surgery. When a racehorse breaks their leg, it’s often a death sentence.
Some sports are dangerous, but humans get to make an informed choice. And an injury on a rugby field very rarely leads to death.
And my final point, regular listeners will recall during the Tokyo Olympic games, a horse made headlines as a result of the treatment he suffered in a pentathlon event.
In the modern pentathlon, horses are assigned to their riders 20 minutes before they’re used in a show jumping event. The horse Saint Boy was seen being repeatedly whipped by his rider when he refused to cooperate. The equestrian coach was also seen leaning over the fence in an attempt to strike the horse with their fist.
These images were broadcast all around the world and bought global attention to the cruelty that can occur at these equestrian events.
The coach was suspended from the Olympics over the incident and later told to undergo animal welfare training before attending any future international competitions.
But that’s where the accountability ends for the German equestrian rider and her coach. Two weeks ago German prosecutions announced that they were dropping their animal cruelty investigation. Their reasoning? Because the horse had not been injured, and the rider was in an ‘exceptional physical and psychological situation’.
The reality is that situation was completely avoidable. Take the animals out of entertainment, and you’ll never see horses abused in the Olympics again.
I’m not sure how the cruise ship industry is faring at the moment, given the global pandemic. I’m sure there’s at least one cruise liner operating at the moment, and no doubt a few budding travellers were enjoying a luxurious holiday on the high seas.
A few days after Christmas though, a ship berthed at Timaru port, and unfortunately for the thousands of cows quarantined nearby, it wasn’t a cruise ship.
The Al Kuwait, one of the biggest live export ships in the world, arrived at Timaru Port just after boxing day and left on December 30 with 11,269 cows, destined for China.
The same ship last visited Timaru in August 2021, when it took over 15,000 cows to China.
We’ve traversed the reasons why live export is garbage many times on this show. The journeys are dangerous. The animals can suffer injuries, seasickness and broken bones.
And once they arrive at their destination, we have zero control over their welfare, and they almost always end up in farming systems worse than what they would have experienced in New Zealand. The People’s Republic of China, specifically, has far lower standards of animal welfare than New Zealand, which is where most animals end up in the live export trade.
The most up to date figures aren’t in yet, but it looks like 2021 was a massive year for live animal exporters. Considering the large shipment from Timaru on December 30, I would not be surprised if more cows were exported last year compared to 2020, when just shy of 110,000 were exported. For comparison, 88,000 cows were exported as of the 24th of September 2021.
And considering the Government announced last year that they would be banning live export, it’s a disgrace that so many cows were shipped overseas in the last 12 months.
Thank you for listening to Animal Matters.
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Until next time, mā te wā