598 horses from the racing industry were sent to slaughter in England in 2024
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The Cheltenham Festival takes place between 11th-14th March – and will be surrounded by the inevitable ‘welfare propaganda’ pushed by the racing industry. We know this to be nothing more than empty marketing rhetoric, peddled by the industry to convince the public of their commitment to ‘good welfare’ and the fairy-tale lives of race horses. The shocking new figures from the Food Standards Agency speak of a far more disturbing reality, one in which horses are not treated as valuable or beloved, but as disposable commodities whose lives are exploited for every last penny of profit that can be made from their flesh and bones.
There was a 242% increase in horses with racing industry passports slaughtered in 2024, with the majority of these being just five years old or younger.
- GB: The Food Standards Agency (letter ref FOI 00017) told Animal Aid that in 2024, 598 horses, who were registered with Weatherbys’ Passports (British and Irish) were slaughtered in licensed slaughterhouses in England. This number is a huge increase from 2023, when 175 horses with Weatherbys passports were slaughtered. 308 of the horses were just five years old or younger. 538 of the horses with racing passports slaughtered in England were from Ireland.
- Ireland: Following a question from Paul Murphy TD, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, stated that 641 thoroughbred horses were slaughtered in 2024. Following an RTE documentary in June, which unveiled systemic abuse of horses and fraudulent practices, Shannonside Foods (Ireland’s only licensed slaughterhouse for horses) was shut down. No horses have been slaughtered in Ireland since. It is likely that more horses are now being exported, and facing gruelling journeys, before being killed in a slaughterhouse.
Says Nina Copleston-Hawkens, Animal Aid Campaign Manager:
‘We ask all those responsible for protecting these horses, how can you sleep at night? These are innocent animals, who have been bred into this world by an industry so callous that they would rather squeeze every penny that can be made by selling their body for meat, than provide proper aftercare or at the very last resort if a horse is truly unwell with no hope of recovery, peaceful euthanasia by a qualified vet. (Note that slaughter is categorically not euthanasia – despite what the industry might try and claim).
Any declaration that the industry put the wellbeing of horses first is simply a marketing slogan – do you think they put the 598 horses who drew their final breath in the horror of the slaughterhouse, first?’
Furthermore, these figures represent the systemic disregard for horses’ wellbeing within the racing industry – standing in stark contrast to their empty claims that ‘every horse matters’ in their marketing campaign, Horse PWR. Crucially, any claim that they care about the aftercare of horses that does not address the sheer overbreeding of horses (around 13,000 foals are born into the Irish and British industries each year) is utterly negligent.
