A billboard featuring a dead horse has whipped up outrage ahead of the spring racing carnival, with the racing industry claiming the animal welfare campaign is a "highly inappropriate" distortion of the truth.

The strategically placed 22-metre billboard - on CityLink, near the Bolte Bridge - was installed on Saturday to highlight the perils of jumps racing, and sits alongside a billboard promoting the spring racing carnival.

The controversial billboard greeting drivers near the Bolte Bridge - just before another marking the start of the 'unmissable' spring racing carnival. Credit:Joe Armao

The Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses, which paid for the controversial billboard, says jumps racing is "20 times more dangerous than straight racing".

"[Jumps racing] is illegal in New South Wales," said the group's communications manager, Ward Young. "And we've tried to reason with the racing industry on this, but they've ignored our community's call on it."