Category: Publications

So pleased to see this published. What kept me going was the desire to give the horses in the racing industry a voice.

Bergmann, Iris M. 2019. Interspecies Sustainability to Ensure Animal Protection: Lessons from the Thoroughbred Racing Industry. Sustainability 11(19), 5539.

Abstract: There is a disconnect between dominant conceptions of sustainability and the protection of animals arising from the anthropocentric orientation of most conceptualisations of sustainability, including sustainable development. Critiques of this disconnect are primarily based in the context of industrial animal agriculture and a general model of a species-inclusive conception of sustainability has yet to emerge. The original contribution of this article is two-fold: First, it develops a theoretical framework for interspecies sustainability. Second, it applies this to a case study of the thoroughbred racing industry. Interviews were conducted with thoroughbred industry and animal advocacy informants in the US, Australia and Great Britain. While industry informants claim thoroughbred welfare is seminal for industry sustainability, they adopt a market-oriented anthropocentric conception of sustainability and do not consider animal welfare a sustainability domain in its own right. Animal advocacy informants demonstrate a deeper understanding of welfare but some express discomfort about linking sustainability, welfare and racing. Eight analytical layers have been identified in the discourse in the interface of sustainability and animal protection, of which two have transformational potential to advance interspecies sustainability. Interspecies sustainability urgently needs to be advanced to ensure animal protection in the sustainability transition, and to not leave the defining of animal welfare and sustainability to animal industries.

The wonderful team of editors in Stockholm, Jonna Bornemark, Petra Andersson and Ulla Ekström von Essen, have compiled a book titled “Equine Cultures in Transition: Ethical Questions”, in publication by Routledge, with 16 intriguing chapters, mostly drawing on presenters of the Equine Cultures conference in Stockholm in 2016. I am proud to be part of this volume and am looking forward to seeing the finished publication, due in January 2019.

With my chapter: “He Loves to Race – or does He? Ethics and Welfare in Racing”, I present part of the results of my interview study involving nine thoroughbred racing industry representatives from the US and Australia, and seven representatives of thoroughbred advocacy organisations from the US, Australia and Great Britain.

The results of my study published in this chapter show that thoroughbred welfare is conceptualised by the participants in three groups of welfare issues:

• the use and potential overuse of drugs and medication;
• injuries and death on the racetrack; and
• the aftercare of thoroughbreds exiting the industry.

Furthermore, it appears that the thoroughbred racing industry pursues three objectives with their welfare initiatives:

• to address the most egregious welfare violations of industry practices on and off the track;
• to influence the public’s perception of the industry and its treatment of the thoroughbred; and
• to focus on productivity, efficiency and optimisation of the commodifiable characteristics of the thoroughbred.

In conclusion, some of the welfare initiatives can be expected to benefit individual thoroughbreds, but it is not clear whether this will lead to net gains for thoroughbred welfare in the racing industry overall.

The book’s chapters are arranged under five themes, with my chapter included under “Problematic practices?” (the other practice addressed here is dressage). The four other themes are Horses at work; Leadership, power, and training methodology; Negotiations in contemporary dressage; and Horse keeping.

Citation: Bergmann, Iris. 2019. He Loves to Race – or Does He? Ethics and Welfare in Racing. In Equine Cultures in Transition: Ethical Questions, 1st edition, edited by Jonna Bornemark, Petra Andersson and Ulla Ekström von Essen. Routledge Advances in Sociology. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 117-133.  Pre-proof.

Last edited 25.10.2019