I AM writing in response to a letter in the Guardian from Animal Aid, in relation to British horseracing.

In this letter the animal rights group – which campaigns against the use of animals by human beings – calls upon readers to sign a petition which calls for government to ‘step in and take action over horse deaths’.

What the letter doesn’t point out is that the injury rate in British racing has decreased by more than a third in the past 20 years as a result of the investment in equine science and welfare by the British Horseracing Authority and racing industry. Now 99.58 per cent of runners in British racing complete their races without incurring any sort of long-term injury.

This record of ever improving safety has been endorsed by the Government itself, confirming the BHA’s position as the appropriate, independent body responsible for the safety of jockeys and horses at races in this country, given that overall racehorse welfare is improving and fatalities at racecourses are falling. Without horseracing there would be no thoroughbred racehorse.

As a vet I can assure you that the care and the support structures that the 14,000 horses in training at any one time receive are exemplary and superior to those available to almost all other domestic or domesticated animals.

Racing brings far more life to the horse population than it takes away. And the quality of those lives is astonishingly high.

Simon Knapp

Scott Dunn’s equine clinic