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He died running in the National, and that’s all the animal rights people will be focussing on.
Has there been much protest by them outside the farm near Amersham where all those horses were starved to death?
With my Proper Job being based in Chesham, and the farm in question based barely two miles from the office, I’ve been able to espy the site from a safe distance periodically and have also been following what further news has been reported in the local paper.
The short answer to your question is that there has been no demonstrable or sustained protest, if any at all.
There’ll be correspondents closer placed to it who can say for certain, but I don’t think they’ve been swarming to the pig farm in Ireland where similar atrocities were reported this week yet either, have they?
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I agree, this could be a disaster. The production team (who are known for calling it the "why? show" internally) will be deciding how they’re going to present this on Monday’s show, and a lot hangs on their editorial decision.
If they go for a cruelty angle, it could a lot more damage than any animal rights campaigns have done in the last 20 years put together.
What a load of cobblers and scaremongering, why on earth should anyone in their right mind take the cruelty angle when none was involved. Anyone who did would be made to look extremely silly.
As for the animal aid nutters who gives a monkey’s about them?Has there been much protest by them outside the farm near Amersham where all those horses were starved to death?
With my Proper Job being based in Chesham, and the farm in question based barely two miles from the office, I’ve been able to espy the site from a safe distance periodically and have also been following what further news has been reported in the local paper.
The short answer to your question is that there has been no demonstrable or sustained protest, if any at all.
gcSurprise surprise.
There are reports that he "ran into a barrier" and did not get up
I actually saw a horse near the barrier that didn’t seem to be getting up, i assumed the horse had fallen and not that the horse had been running round and actually ran into the barrier.
RIP McKelvey, commiserations to connections.
Irrelevant of how the death occured, the horse shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
Whatever you do to a tendon, they take a year to heal and strengthen. All the time people come along with these new ideas (remember stem cell?), but they all prove to be a waste of time at best.
On the back of 2 crap runs the horse shouldn’t have been running in a 2 runner seller, let alone the National.
We all know that horses are patched up and bodged for runs every day, but that doesn’t make it right. The one chance the BHA had of a vet failing the horse to run (which surely any self resepcting vet who watched the National last year would do), and they wiimp out and take the easy option.
I hate the Animal Aid bull as much as anyone, but the racing authorities have all but asked for something like this to happen.I agree, this could be a disaster. The production team (who are known for calling it the "why? show" internally) will be deciding how they’re going to present this on Monday’s show, and a lot hangs on their editorial decision.
If they go for a cruelty angle, it could a lot more damage than any animal rights campaigns have done in the last 20 years put together.
What a load of cobblers and scaremongering, why on earth should anyone in their right mind take the cruelty angle when none was involved. Anyone who did would be made to look extremely silly.
As for the animal aid nutters who gives a monkey’s about them?That’s this one all solved then.
Havve just looked at theoneshow website and it said that McKelveys injury last year was so bad that the Aintree vets wanted to have him put down, If this is the case then I don’t think he should have been running within a year. I hadn’t realised his injury had been so serious.It was never a good idea to run this story.
Agree marb, all some seem to do on here is continually knock the sport. I am quite sure the One Show will sensitively handle the whole thing perfectly well.
yeats – I just think not expecting any backlash (warranted or not) given what has happened is unlikely given the anti racing views held by some.
I don’t think that "Anyone who did [use the cruelty angle] would be made to look extremely silly." necessarily. Who would be stating racing’s case?
As has already been stated by Jeremy, it is largely going to depend on what the One Show editorial team choose to do. You would have to hope that they considered death as a possibility and have a plan of how to deal with it. You would think that considering they have sort of "sponsored" the horse’s return, that bad-mouthing one of the Beeb’s main sporting spectacle’s would not happen.
Irrelevant of how the death occured, the horse shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
Whatever you do to a tendon, they take a year to heal and strengthen. All the time people come along with these new ideas (remember stem cell?), but they all prove to be a waste of time at best.
On the back of 2 crap runs the horse shouldn’t have been running in a 2 runner seller, let alone the National.
We all know that horses are patched up and bodged for runs every day, but that doesn’t make it right. The one chance the BHA had of a vet failing the horse to run (which surely any self resepcting vet who watched the National last year would do), and they wiimp out and take the easy option.
I hate the Animal Aid bull as much as anyone, but the racing authorities have all but asked for something like this to happen.100% true, I totally agree, it was just under a year between his runs and how long was he back being ridden ? I guess 4 months after his severe injuries? And Peter Bowen said he was lucky to be still with us, due to the severity of the injury… and this was after last years race…..
I’m looking up and down the thread trying to find where anyone has criticised the production team?
The only point I made, as with others, that it is now in the hands of the production team how this is presented to the public.
They could easily go for the angle of is the race too dangerous. And I wouldn’t blame them. I hope they don’t because it will do a lot more damage (coming from that nice couple that present it
) than the fringe campaign groups.Been thinking about this some more…. Surely, as a programme that has been following a national horse they are in fact endorsing the race/the sport as being just fine. So to then say on Monday anything negative about the sport they would be hypoctites. They will surely be in a position to say how unlucky it was. Or do I miss something?
We had been discussing at my workplace what would happen if McKelvey died in the National after being followed by One Show viewers for over a month. A PR disaster we all agreed.
This is a very popular program, and already I am not keen on watching on Monday. I know it was a total accident (last years accidental death near the finishing line was worse but thankfully did not have the same exposure as this one will have).
It was great to hear McKelvey was back in training and I backed him last year, but after seeing him I could hardly bring myself to back him this year. I’m no vet but to me the clips of him walking at his stables worried me, and his 2 racecourse appearances were hardly inspiring especially on quicker ground.
A sad day for the Bowen’s and stable staff.
Someone in their wisdom has added McKelvey to the Wikipedia death notices page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_in_2008
presumably due to his exposure on the TV show
unnecessary and a tad unsettling frankly
) than the fringe campaign groups.
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