The Orange

Richard Boock should really get his own blog.

I’m serious.  After all, he has an ability to get right up people’s noses and more importantly, evoke a response (if that is what responses do).

His latest outburst in the Sunday Star Times attacks the horse racing industry, primary for the cruelty of whipping.

(As a digression, there are some poor sods who would pay for the aforementioned cruelty but this is outside the scope of this blog although I understand you can find out more about this particular topic by searching the interweb if you must!)

In Whip It Good, Boock makes a number of bald statements:

Take the racing industry’s defence of the practice of whipping horses. That people are still prepared to support the abuse in the name of entertainment says a lot about the strength of the propaganda campaign so far.

…

Under the present conditions, horse racing is no more a sport than bear-baiting or dog-fighting.

…

As it stands today, horse racing is a miserable, horribly exploitative pastime, designed to appeal to those with a prehistoric mentality and a cavalier disregard for animal rights. Whether it’s the racing of grossly immature two-year-olds, the cruelty of the steeplechase, or the fact that only a small percentage of those bred are fast enough to escape the knacker’s yard, it’s hard to even think about it without an accompanying sense of shame.

As I mentioned, there was a response over at Race Cafe (although ironically the thread’s title gives all the credit/blame to the Herald!).

Boock makes a number of wide ranging statements.

Yes, over use of the whip does need to be regulated.  That is currently the case although as noted on Race Cafe perhaps not as well as it could be.

There is undoubtedly some over use but again that can be improved.

Thus far I’m sounding like one of this justifying the “cruelty”.

Let’s assume that Boock is not a vegetarian – which is not unreasonable.  How does he then manage to rationalise the “cruelty” of whipping with the treatment of animals to provide his evening meal?

The steeplechase cruelty is another area where he has clearly let emotion get the better of his normally rational thoughts.

What you find more often and not is that horses after they have parted company with their riders in jumping races continue to run the race.

An understanding of the competitive nature of most race horses would have helped understand this.

Likewise, the cruelty inherent in our contact sports must be addressed if we are to be consistent.

I would hope that racing will do more to moderate the use of the whip.  Fair comment.

The rest is simply flogging a dead horse.