Racehorses Evacuated From La Teste de Buch

As parts of Europe continue to be subjected to record temperatures, the large forest fire raging in the Gironde region of south-west France has forced the evacuation of all 370 horses in training at La Teste de Buch racecourse. Though the fire is several kilometres from the track and training centre, the horses have been moved to racecourses in Bordeaux and Mont de Marsan, while others have been given refuge at Haras de Saubouas, largely to protect them from inhaling toxic fumes from the blaze which has destroyed campsites and woodland across more than 45,000 acres along the Atlantic coast.

Celine Bobacher, communications manager for La Teste de Buch racecourse, told Jour de Galop, “The fire advanced so quickly and is now close to the racecourse. The strong fumes became a concern. The surrounding neighbourhoods have also been evacuated.”

La Teste de Buch had been scheduled to host race meetings on July 24 and 25. The fixture on Sunday, July 24 will be moved to Dieppe, which had been set to race on Monday. That fixture will now move to Tarbes, while Dax will host La Teste's second meeting, which has been postponed until Tuesday, July 26.

The heatwave has also meant an adjustment to race times during Vichy's week-long festival have been moved to avoid racing during the hottest part of the day. In England, five race meetings were cancelled on Monday and Tuesday following the British government's issuing of an extreme heat warning.

Trainers and their teams in parts of Britain where the temperature has been approaching 40 Celsius over the last two days have been exercising horses as early as 3.30am in order to beat the heat.

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Virtual Conference Focused On Disasters And Animals 

The inaugural Global Animal Disaster Management Conference (GADMC) will be held on Feb. 15 through 24. It will bring together 50 experts from 16 countries together virtually to discuss considerations specific to animals during natural disasters. 

Organized by Animal Evac New Zealand (https://www.animalevac.nz/), the free conference will include panels with leading animal emergency and disaster researchers, as well as with practitioners and academics. There will be both live and recorded webinars; recordings of the presentations will be available on the conference webpage by mid-2021. An audio-only, call-in option is also available. 

The conference is geared toward emergency personnel, veterinary and wildlife professionals, farmers, those involved in rescue, and policy and law makers. 

Equine-specific presenters include: 

  • Dr. Leslie Irvine is a sociology professor and Director of the Animals and Society Certificate Program at the University of Colorado-Boulder. She has done extensive research on equine evacuation and Hurricane Katrina formed the basis for her book, Filling the Ark: Animal Welfare in Disasters.
  • Rebecca Husted, owner of Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue, offers training in large animal emergency rescue across the United States and abroad. She will provide a technical review of case studies of Large Animal Rescue on Feb. 16.
  • Dr. Susan Raymond and Victor MacPherson from Equine Guelph will present on Large Animal Rescue and Livestock Emergency Response Training and Best Practices on Feb. 24.

Register for the conference here

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