Greg Wood accuses Animal Aid of dishonesty in the way we campaign on behalf of racehorses (We must not avert our eyes when a horse dies for sport, Sport, November 27). We take an "absolutist" view of racing, Greg complained. "If racing did not kill a single horse from one year to the next, Animal Aid would still oppose it." Knowing that this oppositional stance attracts minority support, he claimed that we "seek to shift the argument from animal rights to the separate issue of animal welfare" - which, he says, is "not entirely honest".
Animal Aid's agenda couldn't be more open. We have stated repeatedly, in our reports and via the media, that horse racing is inherently exploitative, and doesn't warrant public support. Even without the deaths, there are major problems arising from the commodification of thoroughbreds; their function is to be profitable and bring glory to their owners. Just this week in Horse and Hound magazine, the equine reproduction expert Professor Twink Allen wrote of young maidens finding "the breeding shed a noisy, frightening and unnatural environment". When they start kicking out, "they have to be tied down and doped". The violence, fear and coercion continue through training, and on to the racecourses themselves, where novice horses - well out of contention - can be repeatedly whipped.
But violent death is fundamental to racing. Every year, about 375 horses are raced to death and thousands of healthy but unprofitable animals are slaughtered for meat. The industry tries to conceal these truths. We expose them.
An important precursor to change is to raise awareness. Greg recognised this when he insisted that the recent deaths of two horses at Cheltenham and another at Ascot on Saturday should not be hidden. He believed racing could stand proud: "British racing has made real progress on welfare issues in recent years. It has nothing to be embarrassed about."
He should study more carefully the data on Animal Aid's Race Horse Death Watch, which reveals that a second horse, Zato, perished at the two-day Ascot meeting. Another horse, Mr President, died at Plumpton on Sunday, and, on Monday, Pivotal Era slipped and broke a leg on Lingfield's all-weather course - one of the modern surfaces that Greg celebrates as being so much safer. Another polytrack surface is at Wolverhampton: seven horses died on that course in just nine weeks between November 2006 and January this year.
Among our most persistent campaigning themes is that modern racehorses are bred for speed at the expense of skeletal strength and general robustness. The industry is now beginning to scrutinise itself on this very point. Can it be a coincidence, after all, that three young thoroughbreds collapsed and died at courses last Friday, Saturday and Sunday?
Animal Aid also has a "welfarist" concern about the fate of unwanted animals. We recently went undercover at a Taunton slaughterhouse and filmed thoroughbreds being shot in the head with a rifle and butchered for meat. "Welfarist" or "animal rights"? Call it what you will, but it's the industry, not Animal Aid, which needs to be more honest.
· Andrew Tyler is director of Animal Aid andrew@animalaid.co.uk