There are so many things that Britain's Got Talent should rightly be criticised for: the taunting and mocking of people with learning difficulties; the way it monopolises ITV's schedule for weeks on end; the public humiliation and destruction of hopes; and now we can include animal cruelty.
On Saturday evening, a dancing dog called Pudsey won this year's BGT. An absolute outrage, made all the worse by the fact the British public voted for it.
After this it would be wrong to ever call it the GREAT Vritish public. There is nothing great about making animals perform for human entertainment. It is cruel and abusive. If it had bee an elephant in a circus there would probably have been a public outcry.
But, for some reason that's beyond me, the public, lead by Simon Cowell's enthusiasm for dog acts, think that making a smelly shit machine walk on its hind legs to music is both entertaining and talented.
It is not.
Simon Cowell, the show's prodigal guru, identified the problem and said that it would be wrong for anyone to say a dancing dog act was animal cruelty.
Why did he feel the need to say that?
Because he knows that it is animal abuse.
Some say it's cute. It's not. Some say it's funny. It's not. Some say there's no harm, which is a lie.
The show must be stopped. Paying someone half a million pounds to publicly abuse an animal is just wrong. It should be criminal.
Showing posts with label animal abuse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animal abuse. Show all posts
Sunday, 13 May 2012
Friday, 13 April 2012
Grand National Sweepstake!!!
Here's your sweepstake kit for this year's Grand National.
Simply print this page and cut out the individual numbered tickets.
Everyone gets to pick a number.
If a horse dies, or is killed, during the Grand National by the method listed on your ticket YOU WIN!
CONGRATULATIONS - AND HAVE FUN!
1 Broke down - destroyed
2 Fell - fatally injured
3 Collapsed and died after winning race
4 Fatal fall
5 Collapsed and died during race
6 Pulled up - broke front leg - destroyed
7 Collapsed and died after race
8 Fell - broke elbow - destroyed
9 Broke leg - destroyed
10 Pulled up lame - destroyed
11 Broke Hind Leg - destroyed
12 Fell - injured - destroyed
13 Fell - broke foreleg - destroyed
14 Fatally injured
15 Lost action -injured - destroyed
16 Fell - broke neck - dead
17 Stumbled and fell on bend - fatally injured
18 Heart attack during race
19 Leg injury - destroyed
20 Collapsed during race - dead
21 Slipped landing over jump - injured neck - destroyed
22 Broke down - fatally injured
23 Tendon injury - destroyed at later date
24 Broke hind leg - destroy
25 Fractured pelvis - destroyed
26 Collapsed during race - fatally injured
27 Fell - Broke Shoulder - destroyed
28 Pulled up - fatal injury
29 Ran loose - heart attack
30 Fell - Broke Foreleg - destroyed
31 Collapsed and died after race
32 Fractured knee - destroyed
33 Pulled up lame - destroyed
34 Struck into - destroyed
35 Injured in race - fractured pelvis - bled to death in horsebox
36 Broke Cannon Bone - destroyed
37 Broke leg after finishing line - destroyed
38 Broke fetlock - destroyed
39 Slipped up on bend - injured - destroyed
40 Hit fence and nearly fell - broke leg - destroyed
These are all ways that horses have been killed as a result of races in the past year. Approximately 420 are killed at race courses every year but many more are disposed of during training, often because they are a financial burden.
Horse Death Watch
Simply print this page and cut out the individual numbered tickets.
Everyone gets to pick a number.
If a horse dies, or is killed, during the Grand National by the method listed on your ticket YOU WIN!
CONGRATULATIONS - AND HAVE FUN!
1 Broke down - destroyed
2 Fell - fatally injured
3 Collapsed and died after winning race
4 Fatal fall
5 Collapsed and died during race
6 Pulled up - broke front leg - destroyed
7 Collapsed and died after race
8 Fell - broke elbow - destroyed
9 Broke leg - destroyed
10 Pulled up lame - destroyed
11 Broke Hind Leg - destroyed
12 Fell - injured - destroyed
13 Fell - broke foreleg - destroyed
14 Fatally injured
15 Lost action -injured - destroyed
16 Fell - broke neck - dead
17 Stumbled and fell on bend - fatally injured
18 Heart attack during race
19 Leg injury - destroyed
20 Collapsed during race - dead
21 Slipped landing over jump - injured neck - destroyed
22 Broke down - fatally injured
23 Tendon injury - destroyed at later date
24 Broke hind leg - destroy
25 Fractured pelvis - destroyed
26 Collapsed during race - fatally injured
27 Fell - Broke Shoulder - destroyed
28 Pulled up - fatal injury
29 Ran loose - heart attack
30 Fell - Broke Foreleg - destroyed
31 Collapsed and died after race
32 Fractured knee - destroyed
33 Pulled up lame - destroyed
34 Struck into - destroyed
35 Injured in race - fractured pelvis - bled to death in horsebox
36 Broke Cannon Bone - destroyed
37 Broke leg after finishing line - destroyed
38 Broke fetlock - destroyed
39 Slipped up on bend - injured - destroyed
40 Hit fence and nearly fell - broke leg - destroyed
These are all ways that horses have been killed as a result of races in the past year. Approximately 420 are killed at race courses every year but many more are disposed of during training, often because they are a financial burden.
Horse Death Watch
Thursday, 12 April 2012
And so the Grand National meeting begins...
The Grand National might not be until Saturday afternoon, but the Aintree meeting starts today.
To keep up to date with the latest news from the course: CLICK HERE.
It's worth a look through at how many horses die at racecourses and go, largely, unreported. Since the Cheltenham Festival, only one month ago, 8 horses have been killed at British racecourses.
To keep up to date with the latest news from the course: CLICK HERE.
It's worth a look through at how many horses die at racecourses and go, largely, unreported. Since the Cheltenham Festival, only one month ago, 8 horses have been killed at British racecourses.
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
COMMENT: How much longer can a civilised society tolerate horse racing?
Today the annual blood bath begins - grandly called the Cheltenham Festival as if there is something about animal abuse that should be celebrated.
Horse racing is wrong.
It is abuse.
It is cruelty.
It has little to do with a love for animals and all to do with gambling.
In recent years the Cheltenham Festival has witnessed the killings of so many horses that even the organisers have taken action to try to minimise the problem but this doesn't mean that horse racing is a caring, loving, animal friendly sport.
Far from it.
For every Kauto Star that becomes a celebrity there are many, many horses who are killed by their owners because they're not fast enough, haven't win enough money or are too old to race any more. Few race horses have long retirements, too many are sent to the abattoir, discarded like a pair of old jeans.
Sadly, because so many in the British establishment gave an interest and involvement in horse racing, it has an air of respectability. Quite why I will never understand. And the broadcast media goes overboard at regular intervals throughout the year: Cheltenham, the Grand National, the Derby...
Horse racing is cruel. The jockeys have made much if the new whip which, they claim, is more about sound and less about pain. That is irrelevant. We should not be whipping horses purely for entertainment and to support the corrupt, global betting markets.
Sure, flat racing is safer than jumps. Well, it's safer on race day. The owners and trainers kill just as many flat racers as National Hunt horses away from the courses.
And it is no argument that horses naturally run and jump. No animal should be used for entertainment. Crufts, the dog show that finished last weekend, is an atrocity of dangerous selective breeding and making animals do things just for human entertainment, and the selective breeding of race horses has made them into very fragile beasts, most unlike their natural cousins.
The government has recently announced they will ban the use of "wild animals" in circuses. This is to be applauded as it is a situation that should have been stopped decades ago. But while elephants, tigers, zebras, etc. will be protected from any further abuse by new legislation race horses will continue to be misused and abused, injured, drugged and killed so that people can "have a flutter".
Let's not be naive. The use of the term "have a flutter" is deliberately used to make it all seem innocent fun, but alongside every once or twice a year punter there are countless gambling addicts whose life, and the lives of their families, are destroyed by gambling. And beyond them are the international betting syndicates that have destroyed the credibility of cricket and who are without scruple or moral code.
I'm often surprised that bookmakers don't seem to offer odds on the number of horses that will be killed during a race meeting.
If we were a civilised society we would treat all animals with care and respect. Sadly, while horse racing is seen as an acceptable pastime, we are still a society of barbarians.
Horse racing is wrong.
It is abuse.
It is cruelty.
It has little to do with a love for animals and all to do with gambling.
In recent years the Cheltenham Festival has witnessed the killings of so many horses that even the organisers have taken action to try to minimise the problem but this doesn't mean that horse racing is a caring, loving, animal friendly sport.
Far from it.
For every Kauto Star that becomes a celebrity there are many, many horses who are killed by their owners because they're not fast enough, haven't win enough money or are too old to race any more. Few race horses have long retirements, too many are sent to the abattoir, discarded like a pair of old jeans.
Sadly, because so many in the British establishment gave an interest and involvement in horse racing, it has an air of respectability. Quite why I will never understand. And the broadcast media goes overboard at regular intervals throughout the year: Cheltenham, the Grand National, the Derby...
Horse racing is cruel. The jockeys have made much if the new whip which, they claim, is more about sound and less about pain. That is irrelevant. We should not be whipping horses purely for entertainment and to support the corrupt, global betting markets.
Sure, flat racing is safer than jumps. Well, it's safer on race day. The owners and trainers kill just as many flat racers as National Hunt horses away from the courses.
And it is no argument that horses naturally run and jump. No animal should be used for entertainment. Crufts, the dog show that finished last weekend, is an atrocity of dangerous selective breeding and making animals do things just for human entertainment, and the selective breeding of race horses has made them into very fragile beasts, most unlike their natural cousins.
The government has recently announced they will ban the use of "wild animals" in circuses. This is to be applauded as it is a situation that should have been stopped decades ago. But while elephants, tigers, zebras, etc. will be protected from any further abuse by new legislation race horses will continue to be misused and abused, injured, drugged and killed so that people can "have a flutter".
Let's not be naive. The use of the term "have a flutter" is deliberately used to make it all seem innocent fun, but alongside every once or twice a year punter there are countless gambling addicts whose life, and the lives of their families, are destroyed by gambling. And beyond them are the international betting syndicates that have destroyed the credibility of cricket and who are without scruple or moral code.
I'm often surprised that bookmakers don't seem to offer odds on the number of horses that will be killed during a race meeting.
If we were a civilised society we would treat all animals with care and respect. Sadly, while horse racing is seen as an acceptable pastime, we are still a society of barbarians.
Monday, 24 October 2011
OPINION: What do Tory MPs and Jockeys have in common?
No, it's not a joke! In the past week both Tory MPs (possibly a few Labour ones too) and horse racing jockeys have both had problems with whips - but not, for once, revelations in the tabloids about S&M parties.
I am against both type of whips - they are both wrong and have no place in a civilised and modern society.
MPs
Today, MPs from all three of the biggest parties in the House of Commons will be under a three-line whip to follow the orders of their party leadership; they will be told they HAVE to vote against the motion calling for a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU.
Now don't get me wrong - I will be by happy if this moronic and xenophobic motion is defeated in parliament later, but I am very much against party whips.
In the UK, in elections to parliament, we vote for an MP, we put a cross beside the name of the individual candidate that we feel is the best of those who have put themselves forward to represent our views, and the views of our locality, in Westminster.
We do NOT put a cross against a party name.
Parties are a very bad thing for democracy. I don't think they should exist at all. MPs should vote on their own conscience on every issue. Groupings of MPs should vary accord to the subject being discussed and not simply to look after party interests and seek personal promotions (or keep affairs quiet).
There are anti-EU MPs in both the Conservatives and Labour - they should be able to vote together. When it comes to taxation they might vote differently.
Politics needs to be returned to principles and removed from the hands of the party whips.
Jockeys
Following a lengthy consultation, the horse racing authorities introduced new rules to limit the use of the whip in races and to increase penalties for those jockeys who broke those rules. When the new rules were introduced a large number of jockeys found themselves breaking the rules and in receipt of fines and bans.
Now, jockeys are not the brightest of people - an unscientific sample from those who have been interviewed on the media in the past week suggests they are mostly a bit thick.
It seems jockeys struggled counting to 7, or to notice the furlong marker - imagine that when driving on the road: "Sorry officer, I didn't notice the STOP sign!"... you'd expect a fine and posts on your license.
The authorities reviewed and watered down the regulations and jockeys, for now, are happier. Maybe they now have a numeracy hour in the weigh-in room at meetings to help them count?
The problem with the amended rules is that jockey's wallets are now being hit less than the horses.
Whipping an animal is just wrong.
To me there is a solution; I'd ban horse racing. It is animal abuse. Sadly that won't happen yet, but I hope the public wake up soon to the atrocities of horse racing - hundreds of horses killed each year because they don't run fast enough, awful injuries in races, etc.
I am against both type of whips - they are both wrong and have no place in a civilised and modern society.
MPs
Today, MPs from all three of the biggest parties in the House of Commons will be under a three-line whip to follow the orders of their party leadership; they will be told they HAVE to vote against the motion calling for a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU.
Now don't get me wrong - I will be by happy if this moronic and xenophobic motion is defeated in parliament later, but I am very much against party whips.
In the UK, in elections to parliament, we vote for an MP, we put a cross beside the name of the individual candidate that we feel is the best of those who have put themselves forward to represent our views, and the views of our locality, in Westminster.
We do NOT put a cross against a party name.
Parties are a very bad thing for democracy. I don't think they should exist at all. MPs should vote on their own conscience on every issue. Groupings of MPs should vary accord to the subject being discussed and not simply to look after party interests and seek personal promotions (or keep affairs quiet).
There are anti-EU MPs in both the Conservatives and Labour - they should be able to vote together. When it comes to taxation they might vote differently.
Politics needs to be returned to principles and removed from the hands of the party whips.
Jockeys
Following a lengthy consultation, the horse racing authorities introduced new rules to limit the use of the whip in races and to increase penalties for those jockeys who broke those rules. When the new rules were introduced a large number of jockeys found themselves breaking the rules and in receipt of fines and bans.
Now, jockeys are not the brightest of people - an unscientific sample from those who have been interviewed on the media in the past week suggests they are mostly a bit thick.
It seems jockeys struggled counting to 7, or to notice the furlong marker - imagine that when driving on the road: "Sorry officer, I didn't notice the STOP sign!"... you'd expect a fine and posts on your license.
The authorities reviewed and watered down the regulations and jockeys, for now, are happier. Maybe they now have a numeracy hour in the weigh-in room at meetings to help them count?
The problem with the amended rules is that jockey's wallets are now being hit less than the horses.
Whipping an animal is just wrong.
To me there is a solution; I'd ban horse racing. It is animal abuse. Sadly that won't happen yet, but I hope the public wake up soon to the atrocities of horse racing - hundreds of horses killed each year because they don't run fast enough, awful injuries in races, etc.
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