The billboard, paid for by the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses (CPR), was installed on one of Melbourne’s busiest road last Saturday next to a spring racing promotion billboard. Racing Australia's chief executive Bernard Saundry called the sign "highly inappropriate" and "distasteful". "To put a dead animal, be it a horse, a dog or a cat, on a billboard is highly inappropriate and distasteful," Mr Saundry said in a statement.
"The billboard is offensive both to the 70,000 participants within the Victorian thoroughbred racing industry who love and care for their animals and indeed to the wider community who are travelling past this distasteful image."
Elio Celotto from the CPR told SBS he found it more offensive that horses were still being exploited for entertainment.
“If Mr Saundry is truly disgusted by the image of a dead horse on a billboard, we suggest he visits a knackery or two where he will see his retired ex-racehorses lined up to be shot because the racing industry has no retirement plan,” Celotto said.
“This is happening around Australia as we speak yet the racing industry especially this time of year, wants you to lure the public with its slick marketing campaigns aimed at portraying horse racing as glamorous and fun when it’s anything but for the horses. It’s time the other side of the story was told,” he said.
In November 2013, the CPR submitted a retirement plan to the Australian Racing Board and Racing Victoria which was rejected.
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