Reply To: McKelvey Death Gives Animal Aid Another Stick

I agree, they represent a more extreme form of animal rights campaigning, however I think racing and indeed the countryside alliance typically adopt a very defensively extreme position themselves when their sports are criticised for being harmful to animals. So extremism begets extremism in this case I fear.

Spot on. It often feels to me like the good burghers of this forum, plus a certain few shining examples in the media, comprise the rump of those pragmatists who would oppose cessation of horse racing, yet at the same time are honest and unflinching about the more tragic side of the sport.

As with the whole hunting issue, adopting a stance solely of either "Don’t kill the ickle horsies! It’s wong!!" on one side or "Blasted townies don’t know the first thing about horses!!" on the other doesn’t do racing’s cause any good. Certain of Animal Aid will always remain utterly impervious to attempts to engage them in deeper debate on racing, but that organisation as a whole is probably too voiciferous (dangerous, even?) to ignore wholesale.

gc