Racehorse Legislation Amendment (Welfare and Registration) Bill 2021

A horse is killed on Australian racetracks every 2.5 days, with thousands of horses injured every year. Exploited and overworked, racehorses endure cruel and unnecessary tools of control that force them to run ever-faster: whips, spurs, and tongue-ties.

An untold number of ex-racehorses are also sent to knackeries and abbottoirs every single day across Australia. In NSW, there are no laws against slaughtering ex-racehorses, no mandatory tracking of horses, and no legal requirements to re-home retired racehorses. No wonder “retired” horses so often go “missing”.

Mark believes the horse racing industry should end, and knows that the time will come when horse racing is banned for good. Until that day, Mark believes the community must fight to protect racehorses from the cruelest aspects of this horrific industry, and ensure the industry is transparent and held to account. That is why Mark set about to introduce a racehorse protection bill to NSW Parliament.

In the years it took to draft the bill, Mark consulted extensively with various equine welfare experts, including veteranarians, horse protection groups, and lawyers specialising in animal law.
Mark believes the industry must be held accountable and must be transparent.

The result was the Racehorse Legislation Amendment (Welfare and Registration) Bill 2021, which, if passed, will:

  • Ban the slaughter of ex-racehorses
  • Ensure mandatory re-homing
  • Establish birth to death tracking
  • Ban whips, spurs and tongue-ties in horse racing

 

A notice of motion of the bill was given in Parliament on 2 June 2020, and the bill was subsequently introduced on 17 February 2021, when Mark also gave his Second Reaching speech, outlining why the bill is urgently needed in NSW.

If you support the bill, please sign the petition below:

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