Australian Racing Board CEO Peter McGauran has rejected "extremist" claims of animal cruelty after the "death of two runners in the Melbourne Cup" on Tuesday, according to Sonia Kohlbacher of THE AUSTRALIAN. Japanese import Admire Rakti, the "pre-race favourite after winning last month's Caulfield Cup, collapsed and died in his stall after showing signs of distress." Another stallion, Araldo, who finished 6th in the field of 22, "was put down at the University of Melbourne Veterinary Hospital with a broken leg." The deaths "were the third in two years after a runner in last year’s
Cup, French mare Varema, was put down after snapping a cannon bone
during the race." McGauran was "scathing of
protests from the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses outside
Flemington when news of the death and fatal injury broke." He said, "It is
exploitive and ghoulish in the extreme for the animal rights groups to
seize on the death of this beloved animal to make a political point." He added that heart attacks and broken legs were "common causes of death" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 11/5).
ACTIVISTS CALL FOR CHANGES: In Canberra, Tom Decent reported the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses has "orchestrated a campaign over the past few weeks in a bid to raise awareness of an industry 'rife with welfare problems.'" About 40 of its members "protested at Flemington in the aftermath of race seven with one of the members capturing the moment Admire Rakti collapsed in the stalls on video." CPR Dir Ward Young said, "We're very distraught by the news that two horses lost their lives." Young said that 129 horses died on Australian race tracks between August last year and July this year -- "one horse every 2.9 days -- and he called for the banning of the whip and two-year-old racing." Young: "Their joints and muscles aren't fully formed. While not many of them break down as two-year-olds, a lot of them break down in the following year and more than half of those horses who died were raced as two-year-olds." The group launched its "Horse Racing Kills Campaign" with a 22-meter billboard in Melbourne with the question: "Is the party really worth it?" accompanying an image of a dead horse. Young said he "believed the deaths of both horses would change people's perspectives on the treatment of race horses." There was an "overwhelming reaction on social media, with thousands of
people tweeting their horror and sadness" (CANBERRA TIMES, 11/4).
