The harness racing industry is on notice to lift its game, with a Parliamentary report tabled today flagging serious animal welfare concerns.
The Greens welcome the inquiry report into the Liberal Government’s response to serious allegations within harness racing. Its findings of deficient animal welfare standards are confronting.
Tasmanians will remember the sadness of seeing former harness trainer Ben Yole’s miserable horses in dusty paddocks, looking thirsty and miserable.
While Ben Yole faced some consequences for his mistreatment of horses, the problems in harness racing are bigger than a single trainer.
The inquiry found animal welfare standards in harness racing were deficient and don’t meet community expectations. Questions around the treatment of horses within the industry remain unanswered.
Sadly, this is no surprise to the Greens. We’ve been calling out the cruelty to animals within the three racing codes for years.
Harness racing is built on the exploitation and suffering of animas for profit. Every year, horses are injured and die early deaths as a result of this industry’s apparent inability to treat these animals as anything other than a commodity.
It’s clear community expectations about how animals are treated in the racing industry are changing. It’s unacceptable that millions of taxpayer funds are poured into this industry to prop it up every year while welfare standards are so sub-par.
The Greens worked on this inquiry to ensure the Equine Code of Practice can be strengthened. It’s a minimum requirement to improve the wellbeing of harness horses that even the major parties can’t and should not ignore.
