October
AugustStep up, RSPCA
Drugging racehorses with cobalt is a cruelty far greater than the electrical stimulation of such horses to promote performance, where any pain so produced is at worst transitory.
Cobalt is an insidious poison, cumulative in its effect, and causes major organ failure in horses — and, as it happens, in humans, though humans are able to make an informed choice to self-administer or not, while horses must rely on the RSPCA for relief from this cruelty.
A racehorse suffering organ failure and falling in a field of runners racing hard is a foreseeable catastrophe for horses and humans.
VCAT, which has been the ultimate arbiter of several cobalt cases in Victoria, does not appear to have a firm grasp of the rules of racing pertaining to the ultimately absolute responsibility incumbent on trainers regarding raceday drug detection, to which they agree as a term of their being licensed.
ASADA appears to be across this issue of absoluteness, so perhaps it should adjudicate such matters or at least have input into inquiries.
As a body funded by government and donations the RSPCA has an obligation to all animals, but it has left the prosecution of cobalt cruelty cases in Victoria almost entirely to Racing Victoria, which for that body has been a burdensome financial impost.
Rutherglen (Vic)