Video: Exhausted Horses Beaten and Whipped at Romanian Markets

For Immediate Release:

31 October 2019

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 222; [email protected]

VIDEO: EXHAUSTED HORSES BEATEN AND WHIPPED AT ROMANIAN MARKETS

PETA Urges Romanian Authorities to Stop the Cruelty and Ban These Archaic Spectacles

London – At markets across Romania, traders abuse horses in front of crowds of potential buyers to demonstrate the animals’ strength and fetch the highest price. New investigative footage released by PETA Germany shows traders whipping and beating horses whilst forcing them to pull large, heavy tree trunks and boulders. Some even sat on the trunks to add extra weight, pushing already exhausted animals to their limits.  In response, PETA is calling on the Romanian police and The National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority to ban these spectacles.

“Horses are intelligent, sensitive, sentient beings who deserve our compassion – not our cruelty,” says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “It’s past time for Romanian authorities to put these cruel, archaic horse markets out to pasture.”

The video footage, filmed at markets in Mihăeşti and Berevoieşti, shows animals’ bodies covered with hives and open wounds. Exhausted horses collapsed on the ground, yet traders whipped them, forcing them to get back up and continue dragging boulders. Traders also pulled their tails to increase the resistance and whipped them at every step. These markets are widespread and take place throughout Romania every week.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way” – notes that PETA Germany’s investigation footage will be used in criminal proceedings against the perpetrators.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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