The Grand National - a Plea

I have just received the following email from a Sangha member who recently moved to the mainland, it needs no further comment other than to say that I have also added a link in our "Useful Buddhist Sites" list to the Dharma Voices for Animals website.....

It is the time of year when I climb on my soapbox and I’m afraid I cannot apologise for it. If you are intending to bet on the Grand National or take part in a sweepstake, please please do not. More than 40 horses in the past decade alone have had fatal falls at Cheltenham and Aintree, with the National having the most. As I have recently broken a limb I was trying to imagine what it must be like for a horse who suffers the same fate. It has been forced to the limit of its endurance and suddenly finds itself immobile on the ground, uncomprehending. No kind paramedics for them just screens and still the tumultuous noise all around until the vet arrives to shoot them. Why must this happen? Purely greed and even one pound bet on this race perpetuates it. I know many of you would never bet but perhaps you know others who do and perhaps you may find an opportunity to point out this unnecessary slaughter.

It occurs to me that when we have finally used up the oil or abandoned it to save the planet, we may have to return to the horse for transport and farming and haulage and all the other things with which they have aided man for millenia.