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Using the Whip in Thoroughbred Racing – Frequently Asked Questions
In the 2019 Melbourne Cup held this week second placegetter New Zealand jockey Michael Walker ,(seen in featured photo), was fined $10,000 and given a riding ban for over-whipping his horse, Prince of Arran. Using the whip in thoroughbred horseracing has come under increasing criticism in the past few years. The general public see the jockey thrashing an animal and feel uncomfortable, but the Industry defends the whip, saying it is necessary to control the horse, and it ‘doesn’t hurt’.
Back in 2012 veterinarian and Professor Paul McGreevy at the University of Sydney led an observational study on whip use by jockeys in thoroughbred races by The Australian RSPCA. The findings of the Study were:
- The whip caused a visual indentation on the horse in 83% of impacts
- The unpadded section of the whip made contact on 64% of impacts
- At least 28 examples of apparent breaches of whip rules were found
- More than 75% of the time the whip struck the horse in the abdomen (or flank)
- The majority of jockeys observed used a backhand whip action, possibly to avoid being penalised as, at the time of the study, the Australian whip rules maintained a focus solely on forehand action.
The results of this study did not offer any support for the retention of whipping in horse racing, and the way it is used is contrary to the International Agreement on Breeding, Racing and Wagering to which the Racing Australia Board is a signatory.
FAQs – (Australian RSPCA)
What do the results of the 2012 study mean for the ongoing use of the whip in racing?
The outcome of this study shows that the improper use of whips is commonplace and that it is impossible for stewards, using the technology currently available to them, to effectively police the rules surrounding whip use in Thoroughbred racing. Only through high quality, high speed vision is it possible to see exactly what is happening and unfortunately stewards don’t currently have access to this footage.
What is the issue with backhand whip use?
This study reveals that backhand whip use is far more common than anticipated by Australian whip rules. It is possible that jockeys have been encouraged to use backhand rather than a forehand action to avoid penalisation. There is no evidence that backhand whippings are less painful. It is important to note that there are no restrictions in whip use with either forehand or backhand actions in the final 100m of races.
What is the issue with striking the abdomen with a whip?
Striking the horse in the abdomen, also referred to as the flank, is likely to be more painful to the horse than a strike on the hindquarters because there is little muscle in this area to absorb the impact of the whip. The flank also extends to the stifle joint and is extremely sensitive and vulnerable to injury. For this reason, strikes to the flank are prohibited under international racing rules.
Australia is signatory to the International Agreement on Breeding and Racing which lists specific prohibitions for whip use, including using the whip on the flank. The results of the current study indicate that Australian racing authorities are not meeting their obligations under this International Agreement.
The British Horseracing Authority does not allow whips to hit the abdomen, which means that less than 25% of whip strikes observed in this study would have been acceptable in the UK.
Surely jockeys wouldn’t be using whips if they don’t make horses run faster?
Perception is a powerful thing on the part of jockeys who may feel a change in the horse’s stride when it’s whipped and on the part of owners and punters who correlate whipping with getting the most out of a horse. There is no agreed line within the industry as to why whips are used at all – it’s cultural.
What is a padded whip?
So-called padded whips have a shock-absorbent layer between the inner spine and outer sleeve. This is intended to provide a cushioning layer between the horse’s body and the hard inner spine of the whip. The padding does not extend along the full shaft of the whip – only for about one-third of the whip’s length. The claim is that such a whip “will cause less pain and less damage to the body being struck” compared to a conventional whip, however there is no evidence to support this argument.
Padded whips don’t cause pain, so what’s the problem with using them?
So-called padded whips do cause pain – they may be less painful than traditional contact whips when applied in exactly the same manner. But jockeys wouldn’t use them if they didn’t inflict some pain on the horse. In fact, this study found that in 64% of impacts, the unpadded part of the whip came in contact with the horse. It may be that jockeys are using the so-called padded whip in a different way to overcome the possibility that it has less impact on the horse.
What does a horse feel when it is struck with a whip?
There is no evidence to suggest that whipping does not hurt. Whips can cause bruising and inflammation, however, horses do have resilient skin. That is not to say that their skin is insensitive. Indeed, a horse can easily feel a fly landing on its skin. Repeated striking with a whip (of any type) in the same area of the body has the potential to cause localised trauma and tissue damage, the extent of which will increase with the force of the strike and the number of repetitions.
Whips are essential for jockey safety, or to make the horse ‘pay attention’, aren’t they?
Jockeys aren’t whipping their horses in the last 100m of a race to increase safety or to remind their horse to pay attention. If jockeys didn’t need to use the whip before that point for safety reasons then why suddenly pull it out at the end?
Bringing safety into the argument is just an attempt to distract people from the real problem – that last 100m where whips can be used indiscriminately.
What are the Australian Racing Board whip rules?
At the time of this study there were no restrictions on backhand whip strikes at any stage of a race. Following changes made on 1 December 2015, the ARB whip rules now state that jockeys can use the whip in either a forehand or backhand manner only five times before the final 100m of a race, however these are not to be used in consecutive strides. During the last 100m of a race, whips can be used at a jockey’s discretion, which essentially means horses can be whipped most when they are at their most fatigued and least able to respond.
What does RSPCA want next?
The RSPCA wants reform of the whip rules and an end of the use of the whip as a performance aid altogether. The study also confirms that there is unacceptable use of the whip in Thoroughbred racing and that stewards are not properly resourced to police Australian whip rules.
Bear Bile Farming – The Worst Form of Animal Cruelty
Bear-bile farming as it is carried out in various parts of Asia is one of the worst torments of sentient beings imaginable.
Read about the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ of bear-bile farming in this article and see how you can support the efforts of Animals Asia. Their aim is to close all bear-bile farms and release the victims to sanctuaries, where they can live out their lives free from pain and stress.
Read the article here
Fishes and Fishing – Essential Talking Points
Fishes are sentient beings. They are intelligent and capable of complex emotions. Yet they are often the ‘forgotten victims on our plate’. Given the state of the oceans and the environment, including them in the conversation is more important than ever.
Today’s featured article from vegfund.org gives some facts and figures, summarises the main ideas, and gives some suggestions for advocacy.
Read the article here
SLAUGHTERHOUSE VIGIL, LAND MEATS WHANGANUI, NEW ZEALAND
End Animal Slaughter’s SANDRA KYLE does twice-weekly vigils near her home in Whanganui, New Zealand. These photographs are from her latest vigil.
The beautiful beings in my photos were among 150 or so cows waiting at a slaughterhouse to be killed. I photographed them at one of my twice weekly vigils in Whanganui, New Zealand.
The animals stood on concrete in their own urine and feces, their flesh pressed against iron bars. While some cows were tightly packed, there was room in other pens for the animals to take a few steps forward and back. As they jostled around nervously, some of them slipped in the muck. When the innocent and vulnerable find themselves in dire straits it just kills me.
Every face shows their sadness, their fear. They also reveal their innocence. Animals, unlike people, are free from defilements.
They had been hours without eating, with hours more of hunger to endure before they would be delivered of the misery visited on them by us. Slaughterhouses do not feed animals, even when they have many hours to wait. It’s a ‘waste of money’ and also ‘it makes too much of a mess when they’re being processed.’ The last thing they want is intestinal contents and feces everywhere, adding to the risk of contamination. So the girls and boys go hungry.
As usual, I spoke to the gentle earthlings, and sang to them. I hoped that, momentarily at least, their spirits might be lifted. But of course, I couldn’t save them.
I hoped the night would not be too long for them, and that they could get some sleep. I hoped that tomorrow when the men with the electric prods and stun guns and knives began their wicked work that society has normalised, that the slaying would be carried out with the minimum of pain and fear.
Please look at their beautiful faces, and bear witness to their lives. If you want to learn more about Animal Save movement go to thesavemovement.org
Animal cruelty is largely ignored, when it comes to fishes
This week a global salmon farm operation headquartered in Canada, is under investigation for animal cruelty as a result of a campaign conducted by Compassion Over Killing (COK). Undercover footage shows salmon being scooped out of cramped tanks and tossed into plastic containers where they are left to slowly suffocate.
Read the Guardian article here.
Fishes are without doubt the most abused vertebrates on the planet, and the last for the public to recognize their sentience. Despite many scientific investigations showing they feel pain and emotions, are smart, and form attachments just like other groups of animals, it is still widely believed by the general public that fishes do not possess these characteristics. Joker Star Joaquin Phoenix describes a fishing experience that he had at the age of 3: “The animal went from a living, vibrant creature fighting for life to a violent death. I recognized it, as did my brothers and sisters.”
It is not OK to torture sentient beings by painfully ripping open their flesh, and suffocating them. It is a bad idea to teach a child to fish, and it’s time to throw the fishing rod on the recycle truck. Commercial fishing and fish farming is extremely cruel to fishes, and should be banned.
So what does a fish feel and know? Read the Q&A with scientist and author Jonathan Balcome, author of What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of our Underwater Cousins
Read the Huffpost article here:
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SLAUGHTERHOUSE VIGILS, Whanganui and Christchurch (NZ), 13 October, 2019
END ANIMAL SLAUGHTER’S SANDRA KYLE, (70), DOES TWICE WEEKLY VIGILS, OFTEN ALONE, OUTSIDE ONE OF TWO SLAUGHTERHOUSES IN HER HOME TOWN OF WHANGANUI, NEW ZEALAND. SHE IS PART OF THE WORLDWIDE ANIMAL SAVE MOVEMENT, THAT HAS NEARLY 900 GROUPS ON FIVE CONTINENTS. NEW ZEALAND HAS FIVE ANIMAL SAVE GROUPS WHOSE REGULAR ACTIONS OUTSIDE SLAUGHTERHOUSES ARE GROWING IN STRENGTH AS MORE VEGANS BECOME ACTIVE FOR THE RIGHTS OF THE INNOCENT AND THE DEFENSELESS.
JOY ANN SATCHELL, (73), OF THE CHRISTCHURCH (NZ) ANIMAL SAVE GROUP ALSO DID A SOLITARY VIGIL THIS WEEKEND. AN EXCERPT FROM HER REPORT:
‘It was a new experience standing alone at the slaughter house gates. I spent more time talking to the animals, over and over, I told them how sorry I am. I told them, I see you and this is goodbye. Seeing the trucks arrive carrying their precious cargo, I felt deeply sad…. The sadness only strengthens my resolve to fight harder.
There they stand these beautiful, gentle cows, waiting in holding pens until tomorrow. In the morning they will be herded through the slaughter house doors, and they will be murdered with a knife across their throat. Bodies to be chopped up, wrapped up and put on display in a supermarket. This is the sole purpose they they were born, to fill the appetite of people who crave dead flesh. They have as much blood on their hands as the slaughter house worker. They support this horrific industry’.
AN EXCERPT FROM SANDRA’S REPORT
SLAUGHTERHOUSE VIGIL, Whanganui, 13 October 2019
With Monika still away in Australia I was by myself again today.
As the sheep and bobbycalf slaughterhouse wasn’t receiving cattle today, I went to the nearby cow and pig slaughterhouse and stood on the roadside with my signs. I have never noticed a gender bias for drivers’ positive toots, although more males yell out expletives and give the finger and other gestures of disapproval than females do. I had quite a few of those today, plus a man who pulled up beside me and angrily told me off for trespassing.
I walked around the side where the pens are and looked over. A group of Black Angus were directly below me. I have noticed that Black Angus tend to be more agitated than the other breeds of cows I see, who I would describe as looking more scared and depressed. Can anyone who knows more about cattle than I do tell me why this would be? Why would Black Angus be visibly more agitated than other cows? Are they known for being more highly strung?
I stood in the part of the forecourt that is designated as pedestrian and took photos of animals who arrived in two truckloads. The sun was shining and there was little wind, and although I was more than thirty feet away, the animals could clearly hear me talking to them: ‘Hello my darlings, Hey babies! How are my boys?’ How are my girls? You’re so beautiful. I love you so much. You’re so beautiful, aren’t you babies?’. I also sang to them, ‘Om Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram’ – over and over again, until every cow was unloaded from both trucks.
I know many dedicated animal activists who won’t do slaughterhouse vigils, because it is so confronting and so depressing. I understand that; I still get depressed, every single time. Yet even though the sights, the smells, and the sounds – metal doors clanging, chaotic hooves on wooden ramps, rough shouts from the workers – play on my mind, I still want to do this work. Seeing the poor animals makes me all the more determined to do everything I can to stop the terrible injustice.
Cheese Should Carry Breast Cancer Warnings say Doctors
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine—a nonprofit with more than 12,000 doctor members—is petitioning the United States Food and Drug Administration to require cheese manufacturers to prominently display warnings on all dairy cheese products.
Read the article here
Fish Feel Pain
Antiquated ideas about fish not being able to feel pain and lacking the brain structure necessary for a subjective experience of the world still persist, despite a growing body of evidence to the contrary. Through line fishing, deep sea fishing, commercial fishing, and factory farming, we continue to subject trillions of sentient beings to pain and suffocation every year.
QUOTE FROM FEATURED ARTICLE:
“I recently learned of a culinary tradition, still practiced today, known as ikizukuri: eating the raw flesh of a living fish. You can find videos online. In one, a chef covers a fish’s face with a cloth and holds it down as he shaves off its scales with something like a crude cheese grater. He begins to slice the fish lengthwise with a large knife, but the creature leaps violently from his grasp and somersaults into a nearby sink. The chef reclaims the fish and continues slicing away both its flanks. Blood as dark as pomegranate juice spills out. He immerses the fish in a bowl of ice water as he prepares the sashimi. The whole fish will be served on a plate with shaved daikon and shiso leaves, rectangular chunks of its flesh piled neatly in its hollowed side, its mouth and gills still flapping, and the occasional shudder rippling across the length of its body”.
Read the article from Hakai magazine here
For up to date information about fish sentience follow fishfeel.org
Slaughterhouse Vigil, Land Meats, Whanganui, 22 September, 2019
End Animal Slaughter’s Sandra Kyle does vigils under the banner of the Animal Save Movement, a worldwide organisation bearing witness to animals going to slaughter.
SLAUGHTERHOUSE VIGIL, Whanganui, 22 September 2019
I have been doing weekly vigils for so long now that it’s likely many people don’t bother reading about them any more. Four years of blogging about standing outside a slaughterhouse with my signs, once – now twice – a week. It must all get tiresomely repetitive. I have always tried to make my reports interesting, to keep drawing attention to the existence of these infernal places. Like a flea that won’t go away, I persist. But I’m also getting a bit tired of it all. So today I’ll be briefer, spare my efforts for once. I just want to say a few words about Cow No. 174.
I was able to get close to her because she arrived behind another truck being unloaded, and it was parked just outside the slaughterhouse boundary. I ached to put my hand inside the truck and stroke her and her sisters, but the groundsman was there, his phone at the ready to ring the Plant Manager, who has threatened to call the police. I had forgotten to charge my Bluetooth speaker so I had no music to play. Instead, I spoke to her and her sisters to try to comfort them. ‘Hey baby, how you doing? What a beautiful girl you are. How do you feel my lovely? Don’t be frightened. It’s alright. Everything is going to be alright. Don’t worry about anything my sweet girl!’
I nearly choked with despair at the inanity of my words. Of course it wasn’t alright! How could it be alright? She was going to spend a cold, hungry and frightened night in a pen and then someone was going to beat her with a stick, or electrocute her with a rod, to get her to walk up a ramp where someone was waiting to shatter her brains, and someone else was waiting to open her neck.
I nearly choked with despair at the inanity of my words. Of course it wasn’t alright! How could it be alright? She was going to spend a cold, hungry and frightened night in a pen and then someone was going to beat her with a stick, or electrocute her with a rod, to get her to walk up a ramp where someone was waiting to shatter her brains, and someone else was waiting to open her neck.
Tomorrow morning the blood of Number 174 will be splattered on the apron of her slaughterer and pooled on the concrete floor where he stands. Her heart will be thumping and throat will be tight up to the moment she loses consciousness, her last moments filled with fear and loneliness. And there’s not one single thing I can do to save her.
I know by common yardsticks some would call me a fool for doing these vigils and my other efforts to help animals. But I think that’s because such people are using the wrong criteria to judge me. I’m no longer a Christian, but I remember that somewhere in Corinthians it says: ‘For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.’ I have my own criteria. I know where to seek, and how to listen. I’m just not listening to the same things they are.
Slaughterhouse Vigil, Whanganui, New Zealand 1 September 2019
End Animal Slaughter website owner Sandra Kyle has been attending and documenting slaughterhouse vigils for years, the last several under The Save Movement banner.
This is her latest vigil, at the AFFCO Imlay slaughterhouse in Whanganui, New Zealand.
SLAUGHTERHOUSE VIGIL: FIRST DAY OF SPRING 2019
My Vigil partner Monica is still away so I did the Vigil alone today, at the slaughterhouse that specialises in killing sheep and bobby calfs, main male babies, slaughtered at just days old because they are a ‘waste product’ in the dairy industry. I was hopeful I would bear witness to a truckful of bobbies, as many are being born and transported around now (two million average are killed every year in New Zealand). However, none came while I was there.
Instead, a load of sheep arrived. The road between Whanganui and Palmerston North an hour’s drive away are filled at the moment with mother sheep sitting in paddocks with their little lambs, who trot after them wherever they go. I wonder how many babies are missing their mothers today, and if any of the girls in my photos are pining for their offspring? At Christmas it will be the lambs’ turn to board the truck for the slaughterhouse, and then the horror cycle will start all over again.
In Christianity and other schools of thought lambs are a symbol of purity and cleanliness. For reason of his stainless nature (and also because he was ‘sacrificed’) Jesus Christ was called the ‘Lamb of God’. But not only lambs, all animals are free from sin. They are completely innocent. And instead of loving and protecting them we slaughter them on an industrial scale, the most relentless, heartless and destructive behaviour ever inflicted on sentient beings.
Look into the faces of these sheep, and recall RALPH WALDO EMERSON:-
“You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity.”
RIP dear sentient beings. We will continue fighting for you.
Commercially produced free-range eggs come at a terrible price
Many people defend their consumption of eggs by claiming they only buy free-range. But the premium price they pay includes the maceration of billions of baby roosters every year. End Animal Slaughter guest contributor JOY ANN SATCHELL explains why.
So many people defend their consumption of eggs by claiming they only buy free range. Do they have any idea where the free range laying hens come from?
Laying hens, such as Brown Shavers, a favourite in the egg industry, are kept penned up in hatching facilities, laying eggs day every day. The point of difference between them and their egg-laying sisters in factory farms is that their eggs are fertile. Just like their sisters, their eggs are taken from them, so they keep on laying.
These eggs are destined not for eating by humans, but for incubation. They are placed in huge incubators clinically kept at the right temperature, providing optimum conditions for the little chicks to grow. For these babies there is no sitting beneath their sweet mother, listening to her clucking through their fragile shell.
For these babies there is no sitting beneath their sweet mother, listening to her clucking through their fragile shell.
A few days before hatching their doom is upon them. They are transferred to hatching baskets, and once they emerge, they go through a sorting process carried out by people standing either side of a conveyor belt, trained to identify the sex of the chick, and then the male chicks are separated from female chicks.
Female chicks are placed into plastic crates and are sent immediately to another farm, one which will feed them until they are old enough to start laying. Then they are sent off to their next home, free range or not, as the case may be. They then spend the next year or so as egg-laying slaves. Then exhausted, spent, they are sent to slaughter.
What about the wee day old male chicks though? They are an unwanted by-product, so their doom is to be suffocated immediately, or as this photo depicts, fed live into a grinder. This is, by the way, an SPCA-approved method of disposal.
I think one of the saddest things I have ever seen is the little male chick, spreading his day-old wings in a futile attempt to fly.
I think one of the saddest things I have ever seen is the little male chick, spreading his day-old wings in a futile attempt to fly.
If you consume eggs, this is what you support. Eggs are laid at a tremendous cost of suffering, cruelty and slaughter.
Go Vegan.
