Thousands of racehorses killed in slaughterhouses, investigation finds

Thousands of racehorses are being sent to slaughterhouses in Britain and Ireland, according to an investigation highlighted by BBC Panorama.

Covert recording by the campaign group Animal Aid in one of the UK’s biggest abattoirs licensed to kill horses was shared with the programme.

The footage, filmed over four days at the end of 2019 and the start of 2020, showed workers at Drury and Sons ignoring rules designed to protect horses from a cruel death.

Over the four days of filming, the cameras caught footage of horses being shot together 26 times, violating the regulation which says horses shouldn’t be killed in front of one another.

Footage also showed a number of deaths that were not instant, again in breach of the rule which says every effort should be made to ensure rapid death. In 91 instances, the cameras recorded a slaughterman shooting horses from a distance.

Drury and Sons told the BBC that it “takes great care to maintain high welfare conditions and do not accept any form of animal abuse.”

It said all horses are “humanely destroyed’’ and that on occasions where issues do occur, they take ‘’swift action to review and rectify” them.

Freedom of Information requests also revealed that 4,000 former racehorses were slaughtered in Britain and Ireland since the beginning of 2019. Most, but not all, were trained in Ireland.

Prof Daniel Mills, a veterinary behavioural specialist from the University of Lincoln, who has seen the footage, told the BBC: “A gunshot going off is going to be startling, seeing another horse suddenly drop, these are all going to be very distressing for a horse in this situation.”

He added: “Taking a shot from a distance at a horse, to me, that’s completely out of order. If you’re going to euthanise a horse, you’ve got to get a bullet in the right place.

“If that’s representative of how they’re being killed, then we’ve got a really serious problem.”

Some horses were said to have travelled more than 350 miles by road and sea from Ireland while carrying career-ending injuries.

Veterinary expert Dr Hannah Donovan, who reviewed the footage, told Panorama: “[Travelling] 350 miles potentially carrying an injury is not a humane process. This is unnecessary suffering.”

Dene Stansall, Horse racing Consultant for Animal Aid said: “The sight of these innocent horses being shot and butchered is horrific - no animal should end their life like this. We are today calling on the public to support our campaign and to take action in order to stop this senseless slaughter.

“As a matter of urgency, the Government must review the current system for breeding and disposing of horses – which at this time is failing horses who are no longer wanted. Government intervention could end the unregulated breeding of horses, including by the racing industry which speculatively breeds them in the hope of finding the next big winner, to ensure no horse ends its life in an abattoir.”