Racing Victoria says that banning trainers and owners from sending racehorses to slaughter will not be part of its new $25m equine welfare initiative because it “does not solve the problem”.
Announcing an expanded horse retirement and retraining program on Monday, the Racing Victoria chairman, Brian Kruger, said that placing an outright ban on the sale of horses to abattoirs, knackeries or livestock sales – as is the law in New South Wales – “will drive the problem underground and will not solve the problem”.
“It may be something that’s considered down the track but in our view, at this point in time, what we’re focused on is dealing with the underlying causes,” Kruger told reporters.
“There may be situations where the best welfare outcome for a horse is actually to end up at an abattoir or a knackery. We think they’re in the minority and we want to reduce the number of times that that happens but we don’t think an outright ban is the solution at this time.”
Racing Victoria announced the expanded welfare scheme in response to footage showing the alleged abuse of ex-racehorses at a Queensland abattoir, which prompted a public outcry and dual state and federal investigations of possible animal welfare breaches.
The footage showed that racehorses had been sold in and sent from NSW for slaughter despite Racing NSW amending its Rules of Racing in 2017 to say that “no racehorses are to be sent directly or indirectly to a slaughterhouse or knackery”.
The Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses, which monitored the Queensland abattoir for two years, welcomed the equine welfare funding but said it fell far short of the $200m a year it estimated was required for a comprehensive retirement plan.
“A ban on slaughter is what should happen, but [Racing Victoria] saying it would not work is clearly saying that the industry that they profit from and prop up is not made up of people who care about horses, they care about money,” a coalition spokeswoman, Kristin Leigh, said.
Leigh also rebuffed Kruger’s claim that the industry was not aware of the treatment of horses at abattoirs before the footage aired on the ABC, saying RV was at least aware that the number of horses going to slaughter was far above the 1% of all retired racehorse frequently cited by Racing Australia.
“If we are aware the industry is aware,” she said.
Kruger said those industry figures were being audited.
“The biggest issue is about getting that traceability and dealing with those horses once they’ve been sold twice, three times down the track after they’ve left the industry,” Kruger said.
A national compulsory horse traceability register has the backing of the racing industry and animal welfare groups and is currently the subject of a Senate inquiry.
The new Victorian funding includes greater investment in the Off the Track program, which retrains and promotes ex-racehorses for other equestrian pursuits; building an extended rehoming network; launching a foster program for “thoroughbreds in need”; tracking retired racehorses; and introducing a humane euthanasia program so that getting a vet to euthanise a horse on-farm is seen as a viable alternative to slaughter for horses that are, for whatever reason, deemed unsuitable to be rehomed.
The Victorian Racing Club, one week out from its biggest event of the year, the Melbourne Cup Carnival, also announced a new equine wellbeing fund which will put 10% of all public ticket sales to the cup carnival and 5% of annual members’ subscription fees toward welfare initiatives for current and retired racehorses.
“Rather than concentrate on our financial return we have actually given everyone the feeling, directly and materially, that they are contributing to the solution,” the VRC chair, Amanda Elliott, said.
Both Kruger and Elliott said they were “horrified” by the footage and that the animal welfare announcement was not a cynical response to negative publicity.
