Hitting back in whip row

9:19am Wednesday 25th June 2008

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RACING'S governing body has defended itself against claims it is unable to deal with problems caused by the use of the whip on British racecourses.

The British Horseracing Authority hit back at claims from York-based animal welfare campaigner Paul Blanchard, who claimed the organisation was "hiding behind a blanket of rhetoric" in its rules over how jockeys should hit horses.

In Friday's Turf Talk column in The Press, Blanchard revealed how he had launched a campaign to ban the whip being used on the country's tracks - claiming it was cruel and unnecessary.

As well as using the social networking website Facebook to highlight his campaign, he has also started a Government petition urging Prime Minister Gordon Brown to step into the debate.

Blanchard, who is a York Labour councillor, said: "The hitting of horses with a whip is unacceptable behaviour. It is archaic and barbaric, and should not be part of civilised culture."

He also said that increases in the number of whip offences being committed, nearly 700 last season, showed the BHA was unable to get to grips with the problem.

But a BHA spokesman, who said the organisation was aware of Blanchard's petition, countered today: "The BHA's suitability for regulating the sport is recognised in Parliament and worldwide by other racing nations and other sports.

"We are not complacent and we have worked to make sure our participants are aware of their responsibilities under the Animal Welfare Act. There are whip offences in less than one per cent of rides given to horses each year. Through education and punishment where appropriate we want that figure to come down still further.

"We work with recognised animal welfare organisations such as the RSPCA and the shock absorbing whips we introduced working alongside the RSPCA are now promoted by the RSPCA for those in other equine disciplines."

Today, Blanchard said: "The British Horseracing Authority upholds the beating of an innocent animal behind statistics which every year add up to hundreds of horses being harmed by the whips' use.

"Parliament has never commissioned any studies into the effects of the whip on horses and neither has the RSPCA, so to use them as supporters of the whip is both useless and misleading.

"The public cannot any longer be deceived by the BHA's deliberate intent to legitimise animal abuse. The beatings given to horses every day on racecourses is indefensible."