Animal welfare advocates address Gordon Elliott controversy: 'The taxpayer is sponsoring this picture'

Trainer Gordon Elliott at a race meeting at Down Royal last year. 'You’d have to ask the question, what kind of mindset would make you do something like that?' asks animal rights activist Katie Corcoran

Animal welfare advocates hope the Gordon Elliott controversy will raise awareness of the treatment of horses and greyhounds in the racing industry.

The photograph of horse trainer Elliott sitting on a dead horse has been widely condemned, and Katie Corcoran of Greyhound Awareness Ireland said yesterday: “The obvious question is this - have we seen what happens behind closed doors, even accidentally?

“The more of these skeletons come out of the closet, like this photograph, the better it is for the animals.

“When you see something like this you have to ask yourself, in what situation would it occur to you to do something like that? If you saw a dead animal, particularly if it’s one you’re responsible for, what would you do?

“You’d have to ask the question, what kind of mindset would make you do something like that?”

Corcoran said that when it came to animal welfare in racing, “just because an animal wins a race, that doesn’t mean it’s not abused”, adding:

“The picture shows what happens to horses but to me what it really shows is the amount of respect someone has for an animal.

“I see people say online that if a horse - or a dog - isn’t treated well then it won’t win races, but the dog which won the Laurels in Cork, Clonbrien Hero, failed three drugs tests (for benzoylecgonine, the main metabolite of cocaine).

“So just because an animal wins a race, that doesn’t mean it’s not abused.

When a bright light is shone on an industry that’s existed for a long time then it’s going to reveal what goes on behind closed doors.

“For the most part the public don’t know what’s going behind those closed doors at these stables and kennels because they’re private areas.

“But if something is made public the way it was in this case, then a picture paints a thousand words.”

Corcoran also pointed to the high level of funding from government for those industries. Horse Racing Ireland’s 2020 funding was €67.2m, but the greyhound industry also receives significant Exchequer support.

“A huge amount of money is given to these industries by the taxpayer. Many people will be aware that the greyhound industry is to get €19.2m from the government in funding for 2021/2022, but the horseracing industry got far more than that. So the taxpayer is sponsoring this picture, if you like.”