Dear Beagle Editor,
I would like to submit the following as a letter for your consideration:
“On February 19th, 1966, a 52-year old former jockey named Walter Hoysted casually walked onto the racetrack armed with a double barrelled shotgun. Hoysted told officials he would use the gun if the jockeys rode with whips in the upcoming race, the Fulham Hurdle.
He was later charged but successfully drew attention to the unnecessary use of whips in horseracing. Whilst Wally Hoysted is no longer with us, the point he raised over 40 years ago is still one of racing’s most hotly debated topics to this day.
In 1991 the independent Senate Select Committee into Animal Welfare in the racing industry stated in its Report that
“the Committee, (however) cannot condone the use of the whip to inflict pain on a horse for no other purpose than to make the horse run faster in what is essentially a sporting event. Competent riding of a horse using only hands and heels to urge the horse on should provide just as an exciting race and may also encourage more emphasis on improving horsemanship. The Committee would like to see the use of whips as a means of making a horse run faster eliminated from horse racing”.
Regrettably, no State Government in Australia enforced this recommendation.” Yours sincerely
Animal Liberation Batemans Bay
PS We are a small group of animal welfare activists who have formed a branch of Animal Liberation in Batemans Bay. We will be holding an information stall outside Batehaven Newsagency this coming Saturday 26th October from 9.00am.
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