Related Posts
Ireland’s abandoned horses: Casualties of the global economic downturn
Stories of dogs and cats being abandoned due to tough economic times – or cruel indifference because they’ve...
Spaniards drive their horses through the fire to get them “cleansed and protected”On the Eve of St. Antonio’s Day (16th January), dozens of riders jump on their horses and ride...
Wild Horses Trample Romania’s Danube Delta Should the Danube Delta wild horses roam freely or should they be corralled?
A flurry of...
Green economy: Spain faces slow start for electric cars – What does it mean?
The government of Spain’s electric vehicle scheme has so far failed to take off.
Spain’s plans to fill its...
European climate chief: Change growth model or crisis will go global
Europe's commissioner for climate action, Connie Hedegaard, has stated that the current model for economic growth is not...
Tip of the Day
When given the choice, take the stairs instead of the elevator to save energy and workout at the same time!
Victims of crisis: Spain’s horses
photo by ellhoisa (Flickr CC)
Back in 2010 I posted about how bad economic times in Ireland were resulting in a large amount of neglected and abandoned horses in the country.
Now Spain, in the throws of economic crisis, is experiencing a similar problem. In Spain, as in Ireland, when cash was plentiful many horse-mad citizens splashed out on having their very own equine companion (or trophy as the case may be). But now that times are tough it’s old Sugar Foot who gets the boot.
Curiously, sometimes it’s not old mares that are being, quite literally, put out to pasture, but expensive pure-red Andalucians. Spain’s animal sanctuaries are struggling to help out.
The boss of Spain’s only horse sanctuary is quoted in the Guardian:
Many horses are just left to starve. Others are in stables, but the owners stop paying the bills. I’ve seen eight who were attacked by dogs just this year. Others get run over by cars or hit by trains. Seven people have died locally in traffic accidents caused by horses in the past four months.
–Concordia Márquez, CYD Santa María horse sanctuary
The horses are some of the most defenseless victims of Spain’s economic crisis and are sometimes targets of rage and frustration. One cruel practice is making the horses ‘dance’ by shooting their legs. Abandoning a horse is also not a punishable crime in Spain.
See this video report from Deutsche Welle for more:
2 Comments
You can also log in to post a comment.
Other Greenfudge.org posts
Ecosia search engine donates 80% of profits to Brazilian rainforest
A few years ago I changed my browser’s homepage to blackle.com because the search engine claimed to save energy by using a black background and mostly grey text as opposed to Google’s stark white backdrop and blue text. At the time of writing this Blackle counts “2,518,394.132 Watt hours saved”. I don’t really know exactly what that means in terms of real benefit, but it sounds a heck of a lot better than zero hours saved. However, Blackle’s claims are disputed. Techlogg...
Plastiki: 100 days at sea to highlight plastic pollution and overfishing
Eco-warrior and youngest air to a banking fortune, David de Rothschild set out in April on a well-publicized trip from California to Australia aboard a vessel constructed from recycled plastic bottles. The raft, christened the Plastiki, is set to arrive in Sydney in about two weeks time. The purpose of Rothschild’s journey: To draw attention to marine pollution – particularly from plastics – and the overfishing of the world’s oceans. Oceanographers estimate that there may be as much as 100 million...
Climate change – lessons from history
Back at university, one of the first things my history professor said was that history does not repeat itself. It is sui generis: of its own kind, unique. What he wanted us to do was encourage us to examine historical events on their own merit and not simply as patterns that are predestined to duplicate themselves. Yet we do like to see patterns and it is indeed beneficial to learn from history so that we do not make the same...
Climate change skeptics draft Iron Lady of UK politics
Back in 1989 UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher called on the UN for action against man-made global warming. Maggie warned that rapid increases in the use of fossil fuels, the rise of industrial agriculture and population growth were ‘a massive experiment’ on the planet. James Delingpole quotes Thatcher in a recent piece for the Telegraph: Recently three changes in atmospheric chemistry have become familiar subjects of concern. The first is the increase in the greenhouse gases—carbon dioxide, methane, and chlorofluorocarbons—which has led...
Strange scenes at COP15: curious news stories from the Copenhagen summit
So far the UN climate summit in Copenhagen has had its fair share of drama and quirkiness, from a British viscount calling climate activists 'Hitler Youth' to a polar bear challenging President Obama keep his promise to act on climate change. Here is a sampling of some of the more odd and less-covered bits of news surrounding COP15. Alternate climate meetings are taking place in Copenhagen, including a skeptic's conference of 'climate contrarians' who are against any measures which would regulate...
Bill Gates Foundation to empower the Green Revolution
Philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates have awarded $120 million in nine new grants to organizations and its research partners during the World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa in an effort to develop small-scale farming in sub-Saharan Africa and other agricultural projects. Biotechnologies to manage land and water resources and techniques such as no-till farming, rain water harvesting and drip irrigation are being improved to tackle the rising hindrances for agricultural technology. More attention is being focused on utilizing environmentally sound practices...
Typhoon Roke causes mass evacuations, 5 deaths in Japan
As powerful Typhoon Roke approaches Japan’s mainland authorities are appealing to 1,3 million residents to evacuate their homes and move to higher ground. 5 people are already believed to be dead from heavy rains, flooding and strong winds, which are set to increase as the typhoon makes landfall in central Japan. From AFP: In Nagoya, in central Japan's Aichi prefecture, officials have advised about one million residents to leave their homes because of fears that rivers might burst their banks. The storm is expected...
Arbor Day: Plant a Tree, Seed the Future
Earth Day is on April 22. Everyone knows this. However, there is another somewhat lesser known environmental holiday that also takes place this month (depending on where you live). The holiday I am referring to is Arbor Day. Arbor Day is a day dedicated to the planting, care, and celebration of trees. It was officially founded in 1872 by J. Sterling Morton. Many countries around the world celebrate Arbor Day, but the dates vary depending on which country you are in...
32,000-year old plant revived in Russia
Russian scientists have succeeded in regenerating an ice age plant from fruit tissue found frozen in the Siberian permafrost. A nest of Arctic squirrels containing fruit and seeds was discovered over 30 meters (100ft) underground, its contents frozen for around 32,000 years. Scientists managed to germinate an ice-age plant, similar to chickweed, from the ancient seeds. From the Guardian: The experiment proves that permafrost serves as a natural depository for ancient life forms, said the Russian researchers, who published their findings in Tuesday's issue...
Peru – poor, indigenous are chief victims of climate change
It is perhaps not an earth-shatteringly surprising thing to say that poor and indigenous communities suffer the most from environmental problems. The world's poor tend to suffer more from economic crises, war, disease, and just about everything else when compared to those of better means. After all, if wealth doesn't shield you from these things, there isn't much point in having it, is there? Recent reports exemplify how communities of poor and indigenous people in very different parts of the world...
View all articles
In these cases horses are often like houses, i.e. victims of a ‘mortgage crisis’ where the house is a living thing, which needs care and cannot simply be abandoned. We see some of the consequences in Ireland and Spain.
yeah, owning a horse is somehow a status symbol, actually they are more expensive than cars depending what breed, also coz of their high maintenance and unlike cars as long as you have a parking or garage it all set up, not on horses a proper stable as well as personal veterinarian is required not to mention its grooming and nourishment…..I love horses.