Harassed at horsemarket
Our
teams have been inspecting the yearly horse markets held in The
Netherlands. Two teams just returned home from an
18-hour inspection of the Zuidlaren horse market - the largest in
Europe where every year more than 1000 horses, ponies and donkeys are
sold. In just a few years we have succeeded in improving most of
these yearly Dutch horse markets - now with hay and water being
made available, the music from the festival tents turned down or the
speakers being moved further away from the animals to reduce
panic, more group pens instead of the animals tied on tightly to
railings, traders trying to bring in animals in very poor shape being
refused and fined, etc… But ultimately our hope is to put an end
to these markets because in reality they are simply “parties” for
the local village, with lots of people drinking at night and fear
created for the animals. They are no place for the sale of
animals.
The
horse traders are obviously feeling the pressure, because this time our
team and two women from Piepvandaag.nl, a Dutch internet community
for animal welfare, were threatened and physically harassed when
filming. We are not discouraged and will continue putting pressure on
the market managers and authorities and we will continue supervising
the welfare of the animals as long as the government continues to
authorize these markets. This incident and the results of our
inspections have generated a lot of attention in the Dutch media,
including
an article in het Dagblad van het Noorden and in the most widely-read daily
newspaper De Telegraaf and also on TV, including Omroep
MAX and Hart van Nederland.
