At the Wellington Steeplechase Day event held at Wellington Racing club on Saturday 13 July, Highlighter suffered a
ruptured aorta.
Live footage was taken of 'Highlighter' having a heart attack - she was seven years old.
The footage shows the horse collapsing to the ground and trying to get back up again but fails to do so. As you could
hear gasps from the crowd, a blue tarp was set up to shield the racegoers from the sight of her dying.
Only three weeks ago at Awapuni, another horse suffered a heart attack on track as well. This was the only two-year-old
mare Sizzle.
Fran Elizabeth, spokesperson for CPR New Zealand said, "Why is it acceptable for sponsors and party goers to contribute
by attending an exploitative form of entertainment which causes injuries, heart attacks, fractures and the bleeding deep
in the lungs? It is time to move away from entertainment that puts sentient beings at risk.:"
"Horse racing really is an outdated, cruel blood sport. It takes away the lives of humans but the forgotten are always
the horses that are treated as commodities; they're disregarded, discarded and disposed of.”
“Horses are constantly recorded as not wanting to race, showing distress as they are forced into stalls. They are forced
to run on track for people's entertainment, in turn they are put in harm's way and as a result suffer from fractures,
heart attacks, bleeding in the lungs and death.”
Horse racing is a major welfare issue, as demonstrated by the video.
"This industry is profiting from the exploitation of humans and non-humans, ruining the lives of countless sentient
individuals in the process.”
"For many centuries, we celebrated gladiators fighting in duels to their death. These men were mostly captive, no
different to the frightened animals who are subjected to harsh training techniques and trapped in stalls for 22 hours of
the day.”
"We now look upon these acts of violence as horrific and archaic. One day, we will reflect the same way on our current
treatment of animals.Stats from horse racing in New Zealand this year to date:Horses killed: 16Horses displaying conflict behaviour: 224Injured horses: 272Serious Injuries: 88Horses bleeding from the lungs: 37Excessive whip use: 261
These stats are extracted from the Steward Reports after each race by CPR NZ, as they are not otherwise made public by
the racing industry.