Animals in sport

Using animals in sports often involves causing intentional harm and inflicting violence on these sentient beings.

Lions who are used in trophy hunting are deliberately lured into a confined enclosure and are brutally shot in an unfair chase.

Tourists participating in such activities are often amateur hunters, which means the unsuspecting lion takes multiple shots before dying a slow and painful death.

Cruel sports such as bear baiting force bears to undergo intense, unjustified suffering which severely reduces their lifespan, while horses used for racing face a serious risk of injury and sometimes even death through trauma or emergency euthanasia.

While animals who are used in racing — including horses, greyhounds and camels are abused to entertain humans, it exposes these animal to significant risk of injury and trauma. Then, when they stop being competitive in races, many of these animals are euthanized or sent to slaughterhouses.

Forcing animals into horrific situations for the amusement of humans is inhumane and causes needless suffering to the animals involved. You can help give these animals a life worth living by choosing to never attend or support such barbaric activities in the name of sports.

Together, we can put an end to the exploitation of animals for human entertainment. Forever.

Image credit: Mathew Schwartz/Unsplash

The cruelty behind the glamor of horse racing

The horse racing industry markets itself as a glamorous sport, but the reality is far from it. Horses used for racing are usually housed in isolation and close confinement, which causes these social, plains-ranging animals, major distress.

Moreover, racing exposes horses to a significant risk of injury and sometimes death through trauma such as a broken neck, or emergency euthanasia. The welfare of a horse is severely affected in racing and other equestrian sports. Their diet, transport, management, training, culling of uncompetitive animals, use of the whip and risk of injury and death, are some of the areas of welfare concern.

When racing, a horse is often struck with a whip which inflicts pain to the animal and can result in injury, all just to enhance their performance. Although, Australia's Rules of Racing only allow a specific type of 'padded' whip, there are no rules about the number of strikes during the last 100 meters of a race.

Another cruel practice in horse racing is the usage of tongue-ties to prevent the horses from choking during high intensity exercise. When pressure is applied to the tongue-tie via the reins, the helpless horses are forced to comply. Horses with tongue-ties often show signs of pain, anxiety and distress, have difficulty swallowing, cuts and lacerations to the tongue, bruising and swelling.

Horse racing is just another cruel form of entertainment at the expense of innocent animals. With your help, we can end the needless suffering of horses. Forever.

Greyhounds are used and abused to entertain humans

Image credit: Victor Paul / Flickr

Ahead of the last election, the leaders of both Labour and National parties pledged to ban greyhound racing in New Zealand. Thousands of passionate people and animal groups have campaigned for years for the end of the barbaric “sport”.

Dogs involved in greyhound racing are used and abused to entertain humans. These sentient animals are exposed to significant risk of injury and trauma. And when they stop being competitive in races, many of these animals are euthanised, sent to slaughterhouses or carelessly killed.

In 2022, an independent survey commissioned by SPCA New Zealand found most New Zealanders think there are more negatives than positives to commercial greyhound racing with 74% saying that they would vote to ban it in a referendum.

After years of reports of widespread animal welfare issues, the community is calling for the Government to fulfil their election promise and stop commercial greyhound racing. Forever.

Image credit: Farm Transparency Project / Animals Uncovered

Provoking animals into aggression is not a sport

Rodeos are cruel events in which unsuspecting animals such as bulls, horses and cows are tormented and provoked, sometimes using harmful devices like electric prods, bucking straps and spurs to make them behave 'wild’ and ‘put on a show’. All for the sake of entertaining large crowds.

These events include bull riding, calf-roping, steer wrestling, and bareback and saddle bronc riding. For each of these activities, rodeo riders subject the animals to fear, discomfort and pain, often resulting in painful injuries such as broken bones, ligament tears, and bruises. At times, the injuries are so severe that the animals lose their lives or need to be euthanised.

Across Aotearoa New Zealand, animals find themselves stuck in these gruesome shows every year. But it is time to put an end to this horrific excuse for sport that costs animals their precious lives. If people stop attending rodeos, the showrunners will have no option but to stop subjecting so many of these sentient beings to such terrible trauma and abuse each year.

Rodeos are banned from Auckland Council land. With your help, we can put an end to cruelty and animal suffering in the name of sports.

Image credit: Pippa Hankinson / Blood Lions

Trophy hunting: a cruel and unfair chase

Every year, trophy hunters shoot more than 800 lions in South Africa. Wealthy tourists pay big bucks for a guaranteed kill and claim the heads of lions as 'trophies.'

For this sadistic sport, an unsuspecting lion is lured into a confinement where he or she is brutally killed by these tourists who are usually amateur hunters. Ambushed and slaughtered, a lion is often left to bleed out, suffering a slow, agonizing, and demeaning death. After that, the lion is skinned and decapitated and turned into 'trophies.'

With your support, we commissioned research into public attitudes towards trophy hunting, surveying 10,900 people from around the world, including international tourists, who most frequently visit South Africa, and South African citizens.

It revealed the universally strong opposition to this inhumane blood sport and a desire to finance the protection of the nation's iconic wildlife through non-lethal alternatives such as responsible wildlife tourism.

South Africa has beautiful nature and rich wildlife, which should be experienced with wildlife-friendly alternatives that can both generate income from the tourism industry and ensure better lives for lions.

Transforming the current trophy hunting industry into a more wildlife-friendly alternative will not only benefit the animals, but also the country.

Here are just three national parks with lion prides to visit in South Africa:

• Kruger National Park

The greater park area is home to an estimated 1,600 lions.

• Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

Home to about 40 prides of the legendary black-maned lion

• Hluhluwe–iMfolozi Park

A small but growing population of 120 lions call these combined parks home.

Together we can end the exploitation of big cats who are being hunted by so-called 'trophy hunters' and give them lives worth living.

Bear baiting: bloodshed under the guise of entertainment

Bear baiting is an illegal, inhumane blood sport wherein a defenseless, captive bear is pitted against a group of trained dogs for entertainment. In the rural regions of Pakistan, large crowds gather to watch this so-called sport. Bears are cruelly captured from the wild and forced into captivity and torment just to be exploited for this horrific form of entertainment.

Even before they are made to fight, bears undergo immense trauma and suffering, with their canine teeth broken, muzzles painfully pierced with nose rings and claws often removed. After each fight, bears are terribly injured, which is why most of them rarely make it past the age of eight. And once a bear dies, the cycle starts all over again.

Since 1997, we've been working with the Pakistan Bioresource Research Center (BRC) to end bear baiting. As a result, together we've decreased the number of bear baiting events dramatically. Bears are now able to live better lives, and so are their owners. Our work includes:

• Preventing bear baiting events, by working with wildlife officials and local partners to share information.
• Strengthening legislation and making sure laws banning bear baiting are enforced.
• Seeking new legislation that will make it illegal to own a bear or will at least ban the use of bears for baiting, dancing, and begging.
• Reducing demand for bear baiting, by working with teachers, religious leaders and influential landlords to promote animal protection and raise awareness that bear baiting contravenes Islamic teachings.
• Offering alternative livelihoods for bear owners, so that they leave bear baiting behind for good.
• Providing sanctuary for bears who are surrendered or rescued from bear baiting – though our ultimate goal is for bears to remain in the wild.
• Exposing cruelty, by monitoring, uncovering, and tackling the exploitation of bears, including bear dancing and begging, which may be increasing as bear baiting declines.

Together, we can stop bears from being subjected to a lifetime of pain and distress in the name of entertainment.