A NEW documentary airing tonight has revealed that over 4,000 racehorses have been slaughtered in abattoirs across Ireland and the UK since 2019 alone.
The BBC Panorama programme will air this evening and is set to reveal the horrific circumstances in which over 4,000 racehorses were slaughtered in less than two years, many of which were hugely successful in racing, earning their owners thousands of pounds, and most of which were trained in Ireland.
Three Grand National winners, including High Expectations and Kiss Me Kayf, had once been trained by Irish horseracing trainer Gordon Elliott, who was recently banned from racing for six months after pictures emerged of him posing on a dead horse.
Gordon Elliot has been banned by the BHA pending an investigation by Irish authorities (Image: Twitter)Mr Elliot will appear on tonight's programme where he says he was unaware of what happened to the horses, as he no longer owned them by the time they were slaughtered, and the first time he became aware of their fate was when he was contacted by Panorama.
In fact, the majority of the 4,000 horses were trained in Ireland, the investigation found, and many had had to travel over 500km to the slaughterhouses, while suffering from injuries which meant they had to be euthanised.
Despite regulations saying any horse which must be euthanised should be done rapidly and humanely, and the slaughter should not be seen by other horses, footage on the programme will show multiple animals being shot together and from a distance.
The investigation was carried out in part by campaign group Animal Aid, at abattoirs owned by Drury and Sons, BBC News reports.
The slaughterhouse told the outlet it does not accept any form of animal abuse.
Panorama: The Dark Side of Horse Racing will air tonight on BBC One at 8.30pm, and will also be available to view on the BBC iPlayer.
