Jumps racing should be banned in the only two Australian states where it is still practiced because of the unreasonable and unsafe expectations placed on horses, according to human-animal studies expert and research fellow in the University of Melbourne's School of Political and Social Enquiry, Dr Siobhan O’Sullivan.

Dr O'Sullivan said NSW banned jumps racing in the 1990s, which leaves only Victoria and South Australia "hanging on" to this practice which raises very serious problems for animal welfare. 

"In Victoria it certainly looked as though (jumps racing) was going to be banned last year, and then it had a reprieve at the last moment.  But these latest deaths (at the beginning of the 2011 season) are just one more reason why jumps racing probably doesn’t have a big future; and I for one, as somebody who’s concerned about the welfare of animals, would be happy to see it banned, and banned soon," she said.

Dr O'Sullivan said that despite the recent sad incidents involving injury to both spectators and horses, it is interesting that the sport is becoming part of popular debate, especially since not "not many people will actually go to jumps racing, which is kind of a niche activity".

"My view is that jumps racing is not consistent with most people’s view of how we should be treating animals," she said.

"The sense I get is that people really don’t support jumps racing. it’s something that has a certain type of industry backing, and there are strong interest groups lobbying on its behalf, but I think if you were to go down to say Bourke Street Mall and ask people whether its reasonable to ask animals to run very quickly at a steeple or a hurdle, and then try to negotiate it, most people would say no, that’s an unreasonable thing to expect a horse to do. Especially given the fact that we know that quite a few of them will fall, hurt themselves, and quite possibly die."

She also said the debate on jumps racing will help draw people’s attention to the important issue of ‘wastage’, which was a hidden issue in the racing industry.

"Wastage is a problem both in greyhound racing, and also horse racing. Unfortunately many horses bred for racing will simply never have the opportunity to race, most likely because they never show the potential to actually win. So failed race horses are then being pushed into the jumps racing industry, with a view to possibly recouping money that may have been invested. We’re also finding that failed racehorses, flat racehorses and also jumps racehorses, will often end up at the abattoir.  Data suggests that around 50 to 60 per cent of the horses that end up at the human consumption, export quality horse abattoirs we have in this country are ex racehorses. 

"When people go to the races, I think it’s probably worthwhile keeping in mind that while the horses you see at prestigious events, such as Melbourne Cup, do look very beautiful, do look well cared for, there are plenty of horses that have been bred to support the industry that will never race. They are really just excess, just waste, and their lives are often very short. Those that don’t have short lives may well find themselves having to compete in jumps races, which seems to be difficult for a lot of horses to compete in safely."