Grand National Culture War. ‘Vegan mob’ focuses on horse cruelty
Over 100 people were arrested at the Grand National on Saturday. They were associated with Animal Rising a protest group which focuses on the impact of racing on horses.
The Grand National is big business and attracts mass audiences. Its also one of the least safe horse racing meetings. Some safety changes have been made to the Grand National course, but a horse still died on Saturday and two further horses died during the three day event. Such animal fatalities remain considerably above those of other well known events in the racing calendar such as Cheltenham.
Whether the specific tactics of Animal Rising were the most effective that could have been used can perhaps be debated but that is hardly the point here. Even the definitely not woke RSPCA has expressed concerns about Aintree underlining the importance of protest.
All this of course is too much for the Culture War right who don’t have an issue with the demise of animals in sport from foxes to horses. The Mail labelled the protesters a ‘vegan mob’ whereas I saw a crowd of legitimate protesters
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