Grand National 2012

For humane reasons Whips are now  air  cushioned these days, they are effective because they make
more noise and inflict  much less pain than whips of yesteryear, but  because horses are easily spooked by noise it helps propel them forward when sometimes they cannot be bothered.
A race horse weighs something in the region of 1/2 tonne and it is solid muscle, being hit with one of the air cushioned whips  to them has been compared to you or me being hit with a rolled up newspaper.
Go racing and look at the horses in the unsaddling enclosure after racing if you do not believe this, there is not a mark on them, as i have said before, i am an avid animal lover, if use of the whip caused bleeding on soreness
i simply would not go  any more and would join the cry to have it banned, but it doesn't and for sure if it did the jockey  concerned would be hauled up before the stewards and suspended.

Quoted from petethemariner

For humane reasons Whips are now  air  cushioned these days, they are effective because they make
more noise and inflict  much less pain than whips of yesteryear, but  because horses are easily spooked by noise it helps propel them forward when sometimes they cannot be bothered.
A race horse weighs something in the region of 1/2 tonne and it is solid muscle, being hit with one of the air cushioned whips  to them has been compared to you or me being hit with a rolled up newspaper.
Go racing and look at the horses in the unsaddling enclosure after racing if you do not believe this, there is not a mark on them, as i have said before, i am an avid animal lover, if use of the whip caused bleeding on soreness
i simply would not go  any more and would join the cry to have it banned, but it doesn't and for sure if it did the jockey  concerned would be hauled up before the stewards and suspended.

I would be carful saying things like that mate. You'll get the animal rights morons upset and claiming that you molest donkeys or something.

Someone dropped dead in the London marathon when are they going to ban that?

Don't ban the grand national, when the officials sit round the table to organise it they don't say that they want so many horses to die, it isn't on purpose

Adam mentioned a guy David Smith from Durham who shot retired racing greyhounds and while that made headline news it was also pointed out that he shot ex police dogs and many from the RSPCA too.  The fact was that what he did in terms of killing them was legal, although immoral.  As with most newspaper headlines the exaggeration of numbers isn't uncommon given what was quoted and how many he claimed and were found.

He also talked about reducing fence sizes to make things safer in horse racing.  There are many experts who believe that reducing fence sizes creates more danger as the horses treat them with less respect and go over them at higher speeds which is more likely to create serious injury.

Greyhounds and horses love to race and although the numbers rehomed after racing isn't 100% yet it is clearly getting better in both codes.  I maintain that if these animals can partake in the sport most clearly love and then find a retirement home afterwards then they have had a far better life than male dairy calves (many killed at two days old just for being male or battery chickens to name but two examples)

I agree with those that say that we are starting to live in a sterile society where the extremists just want more and more things banned.  Our worse cases of neglect and abuse have come from pet homes and so maybe that should be banned too?