Dataset Information

Whip Rule Breaches in a Major Australian Racing Jurisdiction: Welfare and Regulatory Implications.

ABSTRACT: Whip use in horseracing is increasingly being questioned on ethical, animal welfare, social sustainability, and legal grounds. Despite this, there is weak evidence for whip use and its regulation by Stewards in Australia. To help address this, we characterised whip rule breaches recorded by Stewards using Stewards Reports and Race Diaries from 2013 and 2016 in New SouthWales (NSW) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). There were more recorded breaches at Metropolitan (M) than Country (C) or Provincial (P) locations, and by riders of horses that finished first, second, or third than by riders of horses that finished in other positions. The most commonly recorded breaches were forehand whip use on more than five occasions before the 100-metre (m) mark (44%), and whip use that raises the jockey's arm above shoulder height (24%). It is recommended that racing compliance data be analysed annually to inform the evidence-base for policy, education, and regulatory change, and ensure the welfare of racehorses and racing integrity.

SUBMITTER: Hood J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5295154 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Whip Rule Breaches in a Major Australian Racing Jurisdiction: Welfare and Regulatory Implications.

Hood Jennifer J McDonald Carolyn C Wilson Bethany B McManus Phil P McGreevy Paul P

Animals : an open access journal from MDPI 20170116 1

Whip use in horseracing is increasingly being questioned on ethical, animal welfare, social sustainability, and legal grounds. Despite this, there is weak evidence for whip use and its regulation by Stewards in Australia. To help address this, we characterised whip rule breaches recorded by Stewards using Stewards Reports and Race Diaries from 2013 and 2016 in New SouthWales (NSW) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). There were more recorded breaches at Metropolitan (M) than Country (C) o ...[more]

PMID: 28275207

Similar Datasets

Project description:BACKGROUND:Cross-sectional and retrospective offence data are often used to classify sex offenders in epidemiological and survey research, but little empirical evidence exists regarding the practical implications of this for applied research. This study describes the classification of sex offenders from a cohort of prisoners recruited as part of an Australian inmate health survey and the implications for reporting results. METHODS:Data-linkage was used to join the New South Wales (NSW) Inmate Health Surveys to the states re-offending database to identify men with histories of sexual offending. Sex offenders were classified into men who sexually offended against children only (ChildSOs), against adults only (AdultSOs), and men who sexually offended against both children and adults (Age-PolySOs). RESULTS:Using historical offending data rather than the current offence information only, an additional 35.4% of men with histories of sexual offences were identified. Differences were found between the three sex offender subgroups in terms of demographic characteristics, health, and criminal careers. Age-PolySOs reported higher educational attainment, were less likely to report being self-employed, single marital status, and having children. Half the ChildSOs self-reported a mental health issue and half of the ChildSOs and Age-PolySOs reported four or more chronic health conditions. Age-PolySOs were older than the other sex offender groups when committing their first non-sexual, non-violent crime (M?=?43.2?years, SD?=?13.8); violent crime (M?= 39.5?years, SD?=?11.1); and sexual crime (M?= 47.8?years, SD?=?11.2). Age-PolySOs also committed more sexual offences (M?= 5.91, SD?=?11.2) compared to those who only offended against one victim age group. CONCLUSION:These findings suggested that historical offending records should be used to more accurately identify sex offender subgroups and that differences in demographic, health, and criminal careers exist for the different sex offender subgroups.

Dataset Information

Whip Rule Breaches in a Major Australian Racing Jurisdiction: Welfare and Regulatory Implications.

Publications

Whip Rule Breaches in a Major Australian Racing Jurisdiction: Welfare and Regulatory Implications.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets