An email from a friend of a friend of a friend......
'About a week ago my life changed and my heart is just breaking. After you read
through this email, please go to youtube and you can actually see the video
footage that Claire took last week--it lays at the heart of this email. The
youtube link is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_bg7cuLg-E Or search on youtube
for Animal Aid Unlimited.
I have always hated the condition in which marriage horses are kept in
Rajasthan. These are horses used a few months out of the year to parade in
weddings.
The Rajasthan wedding horses have months of inactivity broken by sudden forced
galloping long distances pulled along by a halter while a motorcycle speeds
along and keeps them running unshod on the cement to the place where the wedding
will be...once there, the horse is draped in decorative cloth, the groom mounts,
crowds of drunk revellers begin dancing to piercing drums and high volume
speakers, and firecrackers explode in the horse's face.
But these are the good days. Usually, they wedding horses are forced to stand.
Thanks to secret tips from a long-time Udaipur horse-trader, during the past
week, Claire and Dr Mahesh have found 50 horses whose lives are lived in the
equivalent of caskets. We believe there are some 300 more in Udaipur.
What do I mean by "caskets?"
I mean, they are left tied 24 hours a day, endlessly, 60 minutes an hour, 60
times 24, continuously tied at both the feet, the forelegs, the head.
They are NEVER GIVEN MORE THAN 5 INCHES WITHIN WHICH TO MOVE.
Many had front legs tied together at the base to control pawing. They were
unable to lie down, or scratch themselves. They are never given walks; never let
to see the sky, they stand on damp dirt or cement. Some are unable to turn their
heads.
Here's what's happening.
To our knowledge there are no laws requiring horses be kept in box stalls. And
even if there were such laws, getting them enforced would require extensive time
and ingenuity. The police have only been nominally cooperative in past cruelty
cases, and they are not likely to view this as cruel since the animals are not
visibly beaten or starved. (Their behavior however reveals that they are
regularly hit in the face. None of them are not extremely head-shy.)
The Animal Aid hospital www.animalaidunlimited.com runs well right now with 18
staff, several regular volunteers, plus Claire on the ground most days working
at the hospital. I spend most of my time looking for ways to raise the
$7000/month it costs to run the hospital. We treat now about 120 animals a day,
and 90 percent are emergencies (the rest are planned street dog sterilizations.)
After discovering that the hidden horses are in far worse shape than the ones we
see tethered perpetually outside, Claire and I have committed ourselves to
pursuing the freedom for these cruelly, horrifically treated marriage horses,
and all horses who are deprived of even 3 minutes a day to exercise naturally.
These horses have no better lives than the moon bears held in China for their
gall bladder "juice." These horses have no better lives than pigs in gestation
crates or veal calves.
To work on this campaign (we do not know of any similar campaign run in India so
we would be starting it) we will need your help.
We need you to try to help send us volunteers, send money (I want to focus time
otherwise spent on the normal search for operating funds) and I want to get to
the bottom of this crisis.
We have a campaign target financial goal of $10,000 for the first year.
$7,200 for a year's wage (duties and talents described below);
$1,200 for a year of phone and transportation (just local petrol for this
person's car)
$1,000 for legal fees
$ 600 other misc
-------------
$10,000
($7,200; Rs 25,000/mo) This will enable us to pay a full-time staff member with
highly effective communication skills in Hindi and English (written and spoken.)
He or she will be called upon (together with me and Claire) to:
retain and work with a lawyer (estimate the cost at $1000)
meet and recruit supporters from the royals of Rajasthan, and wealthy
horse-owners (polo players, people who show horses)
seek funding for legal work
develop and launch a media campaign throughout Rajasthan
work with the Animal Welfare Board of India and other government agencies to
pursue the drafting of new laws
engage the interest of local police in enforcing existing laws related to horse
and other animal cruelty
We need to change the laws. The laws do not require the horses be at least kept
in box stalls. The laws do not specify "reasonable" exercise. There is a great
tradition in Rajasthan of keeping horses hobbled front and back simultaneously
and there is general disregard for their need to exercise, either under saddle
or at play in a field. These horses will never know such play, and most of them
will spend literally 9-10 months tied without the slightest possibility of even
a moment's freedom. It is unimaginable. But we have video footage.
Please close your eyes right now and imagine his: it is a horse whose front feet
are tied together 5 inches apart. One of his back feet is also tied to a peg of
one yard length. He WILL NOT be taken out of his chains for one minute during
the next month. He has NOT been taken off for the past four months. It is dark.
There is a fan, but not a window. He is flanked by other horses. The temperature
is often 100 degrees f (or 40 degrees c). The air is heavy with the smell of
ammonia from urine.
This minute, this hour, and next minute, and next hour, he or she will be lost
in the madness of endless confinement. For any animal it is unthinkable. For a
horse, who must run and play to realize himself; to BE a horse; for a bird who
must fly to BE a bird; for any animals kept in cruel confinement, let us stand
up now and demand that they are NOT ours to enslave.
They are "ours" only to cherish. This insanity must stop.
Our first phase (this will be a "quiet" phase) will include:
self-education about how legislation is drafted and passed in India
finding funding for a staff position; then searching for the staff member
looking for an excellent lawyer
trying to engage the involvement of the Animal Welfare Board of India and other
government animal husbandry agencies in search sympathetic governors and staff
approaching polo clubs and other horse clubs in search of wealthy and involved
horse-owners who can visibly head the "box stall" campaign
Once we have legislation in order, the enforcement stage will begin. We have no
idea what the time involved in passing such legislation may be, but we are now
determined to fight this.
Our mission is this: if you can't afford a box stall, you can't afford a horse.
Just as those who try to keep animals when they don't have (or won't spend) the
money to feed them, if the animal cannot be humanely "kept" then he/she should
be confiscated and given to an individual or organisation capable of humane
"keeping."
Thank you. She's in there right now. She can't even paw the ground to express
the way she's feeling. But her eyes are pleading.
love,
Erika and Claire
www.animalaidunlimited.com
Again, the youtube link is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_bg7cuLg-E Or search
on youtube for Animal Aid Unlimited.
If you can donate through PayPal, please write me an email to let me know that
your intention is to give to the horse campaign