Post by stevie on Aug 21, 2008 19:20:56 GMT 1
Hi everyone. Sorry, this is a bit long but bear with me.
If you can take a few minutes to read the email below and watch the video on You Tube in the link, I would very much appreciate it. It was passed on to me by Rachel Wright, the Director of Tree of Life for Animals (TOLFA) , a charity based in Rajasthan, India and where I went to work as a volunteer for a month last year.
I can personally vouch for Animal Aid Unlimited, the charity mentioned that is working in Udaipur as it is allied very closely with TOLFA and shares its aims and objectives.
The video is NOT gruesome, violent or bloodthirsty so please do not be put off from looking at it. It is simply footage of rows and rows of the wonderful Mawari horses found all through Rajasthan (note their inward pointing ears) hobbled in concrete bunkers where they live most of their lives...and that is what makes it so chilling. These are the same breed as the one on the post about the charity ride from Udaipur to Pushkar ... such a different lifestyle compared to these poor souls!
If you feel you can support this campaign with a donation then please do but my real purpose in forwarding this email is to get it out there where people can become informed in the hope that somehow we can bring about a change in these animals lives through education and partnership. It's very easy to dismiss it as it is so far away but having been in India so recently and having worked with animals who have suffered and are continuing to suffer in all sorts of unimaginable ways, the only thing we can be sure of is that it will continue without action.
So, the email reads....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 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 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
If you can take a few minutes to read the email below and watch the video on You Tube in the link, I would very much appreciate it. It was passed on to me by Rachel Wright, the Director of Tree of Life for Animals (TOLFA) , a charity based in Rajasthan, India and where I went to work as a volunteer for a month last year.
I can personally vouch for Animal Aid Unlimited, the charity mentioned that is working in Udaipur as it is allied very closely with TOLFA and shares its aims and objectives.
The video is NOT gruesome, violent or bloodthirsty so please do not be put off from looking at it. It is simply footage of rows and rows of the wonderful Mawari horses found all through Rajasthan (note their inward pointing ears) hobbled in concrete bunkers where they live most of their lives...and that is what makes it so chilling. These are the same breed as the one on the post about the charity ride from Udaipur to Pushkar ... such a different lifestyle compared to these poor souls!
If you feel you can support this campaign with a donation then please do but my real purpose in forwarding this email is to get it out there where people can become informed in the hope that somehow we can bring about a change in these animals lives through education and partnership. It's very easy to dismiss it as it is so far away but having been in India so recently and having worked with animals who have suffered and are continuing to suffer in all sorts of unimaginable ways, the only thing we can be sure of is that it will continue without action.
So, the email reads....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 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 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
