All Replys via Racenet.com.auRacingAustralia
Following disturbing revelations of ex-racehorses being sold for slaughter with confronting footage of the treatment of both thoroughbred and standardbred horses in the ABC 7.30 program ‘The Final Race’ on Thursday night, industry bodies have been quick to respond.
Racing Australia Chief Executive Barry O’Farrell condemned the footage, but said blame lies with state government regulators.
Interviewed on ABC Radio on Friday morning, O’Farrell said he was appalled at what he saw in the 7.30 program. Read the initial Racenet story HERE.
“I thought the practices, the treatment of the horses was absolutely unacceptable, and I know because of a former involvement with the(NSW) state government that they also happen to be illegal under the state animal welfare laws,” O’Farrell said.
“So I represent the national body, so I take a national perspective. We know that across the country there are abattoirs and knackeries where livestock, including horses, some of which are thoroughbreds are put to death. They’re required to do so as humanely as possible.
“There are rules around those things that are legislated bystate and territory parliaments and what I saw last night and what I heard inparticular from the activists who said they’ve been monitoring that particular facility in Queensland for some time, suggesting years, is the question of why someone hasn’t brought this to the attention of state animal welfare authorities whose job it is to ensure that their laws are actually enforced at institutes like this.”
O’Farrell then spoke about the Trace ability Rule.
“That rule is happening. That rule was introduced in 2016 by my predecessor and his then chairman against stiff opposition from the industry,”O’Farrell said.
“What it meant was that for the first time, in particular for the first two years of a horse’s life, the location and ownership of a horse had to be identified and provided to authorities and every time a horse moved it had to be updated.
“That enables, within the racing industry across Australia,stewards, vets and others to have access to horses if there is concerns about the way they’re being treated, or if they want to follow up what looks to be cases of neglect.
“The difficulty is we now have a situation where during their careers, which is normally about 12 years, from birth until their end of their career where they leave the industry that applies.
“When they leave the industry, the good news is that nine out of 10 of those horses end up either in the equestrian area or the breeding sector.
“But, from that moment on Racing Australia, which is a sportsbody, has no legal right or power to continue to demand that the on-selling of any horses is notified to it, or for its authorities – stewards, vets or others to enter peoples land.
“So, what we have is, I’m reasonably confident that the figures we publish every year would suggest at that stage, at the 12-year mark or earlier because some horses do retire early, are one percent are going to abattoirs.
“What I saw last night were horses, particularly the broodmares,who clearly were older horses, who clearly had left the industry, had been on-sold and contrary to state welfare laws had been subject to the most inhumane death possible.
“If I sell you my car and you then on-sell the car, I know I sold it to you but I don’t know who you sold it to and my responsibilities also cease."
O’Farrell was then asked “was there a flaw in the system?”
“I was before a senate inquiry two months ago,” he said.
“The senate inquiry is looking into the proposal for a national horse register for all horses across Australia and I made the point that one ofthe reasons that Racing Australia and the racing industry supports theestablishment of a national horse register is that it would give us, but moreimportantly federal and state animal welfare authorities, access to the data that we already collect, but collect post retirement of location and ownership of horses.
“I don’t want to equate horses with cats and dogs but in every state and territory we now have registers for domestic pets, surely we ought to have the same for horses, and for the same reasons to ensure that if they’re stolen, if they’re mistreated, if they’re just discovered on the side of a road – you’ve go the owner details.”
