18 Apr Campaigner slams trainer for blaming Grand National horse death on protesters
AN animal rights campaigner has slammed racehorse trainer Sandy Thomson for blaming the death of his runner in the Grand National on protesters.
Dene Stansall of Animal Aid was commenting on a call by the RSPCA for safety reforms at the Grand National.
He told GB News: “What the trainer Sandy Thomson is doing is actually relinquishing his responsibility towards his own horse and trying to blame someone else for the death.
“If Sandy Thomson thought that the horse was agitated beforehand, he had the opportunity to withdraw his horse from that race. And also he would know from historical records that horses time and time again get killed in the Grand National.
“We’ve seen since 2000, Animal Aid have kept records on this, 62 Horses have died at the Grand National.
“So he will be fully aware of those figures as well when he was putting his horse in a dangerous situation and what he’s trying to do is blame somebody else for his own faults.”
In a discussion with Andrew Pierce and Bev Turner, he continued: “I think we’ve got a broken relationship with racehorses, particularly as 200 a year die on British racecourses.
“One in 58 horses who start the season in jump racing will be dead by the end of it.
“So, this idea that the industry really cares for its horses is clearly false because of the amount of deaths that occur.”
He added: “Those horses when they set out in that four and a half mile race nearly in the Grand National they don’t know what’s ahead of them.
“They don’t know that there’s 30 fences and they’re going to have to run to an exhausting gallop to get round. We”ve got top racehorses in the Grand National but only 17 of the 39 were able to finish, so that shows how demanding the race is.”
Mr Stansall said 4,000 sports horses were slaughtered for meat every year: “Most of the meat goes to Belgium, Italy, Southern Europe.
“The point is: should we be doing this to our racehorses? We use them for entertainment and then as food products – I think that’s morally wrong.
“We are denying the public transparency on what is really going on with this industry and it’s time that this was opened up and exposed.”
