I WOULD like send out a heartfelt appeal through your newspaper to anyone thinking of having a flutter on tomorrow's Grand National.

I wonder how many people are aware that five horses died at the Aintree meeting last year? Probably very few, given the customary media silence. Yet this was not an unlucky accident. Horses routinely perish at events such as this and the Cheltenham Festival, which claimed four lives last month.

In fact, research by the animal charity Animal Aid shows that a horse dies on a British racecourse approximately every other day, typically from a broken limb or neck, severe tendon injuries, spinal injuries or a heart attack.

This is the grim reality behind the glamorous facade of a multi-million-pound industry.

When I was a child, I would pick out a horse whose name appealed to me and my dad would put a bet on it for me.

I made no connection between these fanciful names and the living, breathing creatures forced to actually run this punishing and hazardous race.

Similarly, people in offices and other workplaces up and down the country with no particular interest in horse racing will be pressured next week by their peers and by the all-pervasive media hype into having an annual flutter, oblivious to the needless animal suffering they are complicit in.

Please don't gamble with horses' lives. They have no choice. We do.

For more information, and to view Animal Aid's 90-second film about horse racing, please visit the website www.animal aid.org.uk.

Sharon Howe

Fortescue Road, Sidmouth