No Reasons Given: Horseracing Authority Rejects All NSPCA Horse Welfare Proposals

The National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA) formally requested written reasons from the National Horseracing Authority (NHA) following the rejection of every animal welfare proposal the NSPCA submitted for the 2025/26 rules amendment cycle. The NHA has declined to provide any reasons.

The NSPCA’s proposals included serious concerns pertaining to riding crops, proposals regarding the prohibition of tongue ties, a request for formalised data collection related to young horses entering racing, and stronger alignment between the NHA’s rules and the Animals Protection Act 71 of 1962 (APA). Not one proposal from the NSPCA was accepted.

This outcome follows the NSPCA’s 2025 Rein in the Pain campaign, which drew public interest and attention to the NHA’s failure to engage meaningfully with the NSPCA on racehorse welfare. In response to that campaign, the NHA requested two meetings with the NSPCA, attended by successive chairpersons of the NHA, and undertook to genuinely consider the NSPCA’s submissions. The NSPCA submitted science-based amendment proposals.

When it became clear that no proposal had been accepted, the NSPCA wrote to the NHA requesting written reasons, primarily to understand the rejections. The NHA responded by stating that it had placed the NSPCA’s submissions before its Rules Committee and National Board, and that this was sufficient to discharge any undertaking it had given. It further stated that it does not consider itself an “administrator” under the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000 and therefore bears no legal obligation to furnish reasons.

“This response is inadequate,” said Dr Bryce Marock, the NSPCA’s Consulting Veterinarian. “Without reasons being provided, it is difficult for the NSPCA to understand how the proposals were assessed and why they were rejected. An undertaking to take the NSPCA’s views into account carries no weight if those views can be dismissed without explanation.”

The NHA was warned in the latest meeting with the NSPCA that the proposed amendments are done in the NSPCA’s law enforcement capacity, to prevent suffering and contraventions in terms of the APA.

The riding crop causes measurable pain and stress. Scientific evidence confirms that the nerve endings in horse skin are comparable in concentration to those in human skin. International jurisdictions have progressively restricted and, in some cases, eliminated crop use entirely. Norway has banned it. France limits jockeys to four strikes. Germany has banned tongue ties on welfare grounds. The NHA, by contrast, has moved from 12 permitted strikes to 10, with no phase-out commitment and no scientific basis provided for where the limit should ultimately land.

Tongue ties, which are banned across all International Equestrian Federation (FEI) disciplines, continue to be used routinely in South Africa, despite evidence of stress responses in horses subjected to them and no reliable proof that they serve the medical purpose claimed.

“The NSPCA is the legislated body responsible for the enforcement of animal protection in South Africa,” said Senior Inspector Grace de Lange, Chief Operations Officer of the NSPCA. “We hold this mandate not as a courtesy, but as a matter of law, affirmed by the Constitutional Court. The NHA’s refusal to account for decisions that directly affect animal welfare is not a governance technicality, but a question of whether the animals in its industry receive the protection the law requires.”

With the 2026 Hollywoodbets Durban July only three days away, racegoers and supporters of the sport have every reason to ask harder questions about the welfare of the horses at the centre of it.

With the NHA having declined to provide reasons for its decisions, the NSPCA has no alternative but to pursue such other recourse as may be available to it, including referral for criminal prosecution where contraventions of the Animals Protection Act 71 of 1962 are identified in the conduct of the sport.

The NSPCA remains opposed to all forms of animal racing.