OK - As the Original Poster of this thread, I will comment again. I posted the question, much as one would find an exam question, I thought, as in Blah de Blah de Blah: Discuss. Perhaps the references I provided were subliminally suggestional (?). They were, without doubt, relevant.

Yes, I think it is right, when considering Animal Cruelty to look at the widest panorama but even the most naive of people understand that, in order to do anything about anything you need to break things down into manageable bites and the message I seem to be receiving here is something along the lines of this:

The Traveller Culture is one 'we' would like to be associated with as it is compatible with our ideas about traditions and minority cultures, therefore we are reluctant to chastise it without further investigation. However we appreciate that there may be some areas of this culture which, if we were honest, we might have difficulty with ... however, we have found some other cultures, we don't have too much difficulty not defending, because we associate ourselves with them to a lesser degree. And, more so, because we associate them with people to whom we do not associate ourselves. So please can we sort them out first.

Am I right or am I wrong??    (Is this about people or is this about animals? I am not saying people should not rail against animal cruelty in racing (flat or otherwise). All I am saying is that it exists in other places too and, if what you are concerned about is animals, it does not matter a fig where you start.

This discussion is becoming less and less about animals and more and more about perceived prejudices (and these seem to be more uninformed than informed opinions, to be honest, because so few people have been to the event)

Thanking you

Blowz