Horses are treated cruelly for entertainment

SIR – Daniel Hannan suggests that a ban on horse racing could be among several possible unintended consequences of legislation accepting that animals are sentient (“For a textbook example of bad law, look no further than the Animal Sentience Bill”, Comment, July 11).

He implies that this would be unfortunate, but I cannot agree.

Horses are the only animals who may be beaten – whipped by their jockeys – in public for the sake of entertainment.

Eighty-two per cent of flat-race horses older than three years of age suffer from bleeding lungs, which can cause blood to leak from the nostrils. Gastric ulcers are present in 93 per cent of horses in training, in whom the condition gets progressively worse.

Horses are increasingly bred for speed rather than strength, which is why so many are injured and then killed. Would the end of this form of animal exploitation be such a bad thing?

Iain Green

Director, Animal Aid Tonbridge, Kent