Distressing footage shows horses mistreated for sport
Today they released a sickening video showing the horses being subjected to “systematic, violent and cruel mistreatment”.
The cart-dragging competitions take place in towns around the Valencia region of eastern Spain.
PACMA, a Spanish political party which campaigns for animal rights, have lodged a formal complaint with the regional government in Valencia about the mistreatment of the horses.
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The competition organisers have recently been awarded 9,000 euros (£8,044) of taxpayers’ money by the regional government of Valencia, PACMA said.
The video shows the horses' handlers repeatedly punching and beating the animals around the head, belly, testicles and rump. One owner appears to whip his horse.
The ‘sport’, called ‘tiro y arrastre’ in Spanish, sees the animals drag a cart loaded with bags of sand weighing up to 3.5 tons to measure their strength.
It is a cruel, violent, minority spectacle
It is watched by small crowds in towns around the region.
Sometimes the load is so heavy the animals cannot move it - resulting in beatings from their handlers.
Raquel Aguilar, PACMA spokeswoman, said: “It is shameful that a government that defines itself as being progressive and sensitive to the mistreatment of animals continues to subsidise such evident abuse of horses.
“It is a cruel, violent, minority spectacle which is not founded on ancestral tradition, as they try to claim, as its origins begin in the 1940s.
“The violence takes place in every one of the competitions that we have documented.”
PACMA called for the immediate suspension of the competitions.
But the Tiro y Arrastre Federation said strict rules are in place to ban the mistreatment of horses and that it would take action against any one breaking those rules.