Horse Racing

The cruelty of horseracing in Australia is usually overlooked due to its social and historical significance.

Racing places enormous pressure on the immature skeletal systems of young horses and regularly leads to lung-bleeding, while a high incidence of stomach ulcers occurs from the high-concentrate grain diets.

Slower or injured horses are routinely discarded by the industry. An estimated 20,000 horses end up at Australian slaughterhouses or ‘knackeries’ each year, with thousands enduring hellish journeys over many days to reach the abattoirs. Much of the horse meat is then shipped to Asia and Europe.

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Animal Testing

Cruel and painful testing on animals is widespread in medicine, agriculture, pharmaceutics and education. However, the scientific merit and human benefit of many of these tests is contested by numerous scientists.

Amendments to the Code of Practice have seen ‘benchmarks’ implemented calling for the three R’s: reduction (less animals used), replacement (non-animal alternatives) and refinement (ensuring suffering is minimised).

Unfortunately, there is still a long way to go before there is an onus on people to utilise non-animal means of testing – such as the use of proteins from human cells.


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