Racing needs to take more active steps to uphold public confidence in welfare standards
Although the racing industry was not implicated in any wrongdoing, it would benefit from taking more active steps to uphold public confidence in welfare standardsAn RTÉ investigation raced serious questions about practices in the horse meat market. Racing authorities would do well to reassure the public about its own commitment to animal welfare. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho, and broadcast on Wednesday night, were horrifying.
The fact that horse meat is more valuable when passed fit for human consumption has produced a strong motivation for lucrative identity fraud with falsification of passports and animals implanted with more than one more microchip. Criminals unscrupulously driving various coaches and horses through the system looks to be a depressingly straightforward exercise.
It is a bleak reality but a reality, nonetheless, that sometimes animals need to be euthanised. Whether because of serious injury, horses not being apt for a change of career or simply due to the risk of neglect being too great, that can be the most suitable option. But it must be the final option and, when necessary, carried out properly. Standards need to be guaranteed. They fell woefully short here.
All those black and white statistics are ultimately reliant on maintaining the sport and industry’s social contract. It’s an imprecise concept that some might dismiss as jargon, but it is at the core of public legitimacy when it comes to animal sports. There may have been no instances of wrongdoing by people connected with racing in the RTÉ investigation but there is an inevitable reputational cost.
Horse-Racing Department-Of-Agriculture-Food-And-The-Marine Kildare
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