Jorge Hinojosa
A DISTRESSING video showing a horse collapsing during the heat of the day in Mallorca has reignited calls for a ban on the tourist carriages.
The footage shows a stricken horse fallen to the ground suffering heat exhaustion while pulling a carriage with two tourists through Plaza Juan Carlos I in Palma on Saturday afternoon when temperatures there reached 40ºC.
The carriage driver is shown attempting to pull the poor animal to its feet but it wouldn’t move, while an eyewitness shouts for it to be given water.
“Water, give it water,” the eyewitness can be heard shouting.
Eventually the horse appears to get to its feet, while the tourists remain in the carriage.
Spanish party, Progreso Verde, claim city regulations forbid carriages to operate during high temperatures alerts, but that these rules are often breached.
“We cannot keep looking the other way as if nothing happened. This is still being allowed even though animals are exploited and Spanish institutions are doing nothing to stop it,” said a spokesperson from Progreso Verde in a statement.
Every year during Sevilla’s Feria de Abril, animal rights party PACMA denounces the deaths of exhausted horses made to work long hours in the sun.
READ MORE:
- Calls to ban carriage horses after horse in Marbella collapses from heatstroke
- Malaga horse-drawn carriage driver beats up unhappy foreign tourist in Spain’s Andalucia
- Stop tourist carriage ride in Spain: Help yourself and the horses – and walk!
