Horses left to starve after Romania bans carts

[The Straight Story]

Horses left to starve after Romania bans carts

Ribs showing clearly through their tattered flanks, the starving horses corralled on the edge of the eastern Romanian city of Galati are just a few days away from death.

Once, they would have pulled wooden carts along the city's streets or worked in the fields, as horses have done in Romania for centuries. But now they have been abandoned by their owners, victims of a disastrous attempt to bring the country into line with European Union law by banning horse-drawn carts from main roads.

Over the past month, hundreds of stray horses have been found roaming the streets and parks of Romania's major cities. Many are half-starved and barely able to walk; some have died where they were discovered, unable to get back to their feet.

Pitifully thin and bearing the scars of frequent beatings, the horses rounded up in Galati will be sent to the slaughterhouse within days unless someone comes forward to claim them, or to offer them new homes. But there is little demand for an ailing animal in a country where an estimated one million working horses have been officially labelled an anachronism.

Some owners have decided it is cheaper to dump the animals than to keep them, since the cost of feeding a horse is now about £80 a month. Many people living in the countryside earn just £50 a month.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/17/wrom117.xml

[Vincardog]

1. EVery body MUST bow to the MODERN consumption model. FUCK THAT

[orleans]

2. does the government expect people to ride bikes, walk or

drive cars?

if they are killing these animals for cars may the price of petrol not be affordable--for the assholes who made this decision.

[Prefer]

3. Amish have them