A Brief Newsround - Week Ending 4/4/21
For a joy-filled celebration of Easter, head over to the Lucy Irvine Foundation Europe Facebook page where there's a heavenly host of photos featuring lots of our happily rehomed dogs in the U.K. In Bulgaria, the past week at LIFE has been dominated by a single saga not yet ended..
Here on the ground at LIFE we've been locked in battle with a family whose horse we've been trying to help. When we first encountered her, she'd just lost a foal. A vet was sent to ensure there was no infection of the womb and when he called to report on the examination he said it was no surprise she'd aborted as he'd seen her hauling an enormous load the day before. He - and we - cautioned the family to at least let her rest for a good while after losing her baby but she was harnessed again within days.
LIFE arranged to meet the owners (in my mind now, the unwitting or otherwise abusers) and because it was cold at night, provided a rug, barley and bales on condition the mare was rested. We were assured at subsequent daily meetings that she was not working but telltale sweat around her neck where the harness collar lies suggested she was and for all that she was now receiving good nutrition, she was still losing rather then gaining weight. Was she suffering from a wasting illness? Tick borne diseases can present like this. Bloods were taken and with the help of a kind volunteer, delivered miles away to where a raft of tests could be made. All the time donations of bales and feed continued and the mare looked worse every time we saw her.
By this stage, LIFE was negotiating with the managers of a facility in a village a few kilometers away from our HQ, which could house horses needing rest. Rent of 75 pounds per month was agreed, with LIFE providing all feed but the yard's staff mucking out. Our aim was to make this suffering mare the first resident there for rest and recuperation. At first her owners agreed to let her come but it wasn't long before money came into the question. They expected us to provide another horse or funds for them to buy one, so that they could continue to make a living while their mare rested.
This highlights a typical dilemma. Rural Roma here depend on their horses for their livelihood. Families like the one concerned rely on year round seasonal earnings. In winter they use their horse and cart to carry wood, which they sell as well as use themselves on wood burning stoves. When spring comes there are clippings from orchards to clear, dung to be carted for spreading and then the first roots and herbs to gather and sell. Scrap metal is also collected: old car parts, broken wire, fridges, empty cans, anything which could yield a little cash. The horse is central to the Roma's existence as transport and load carrier.
So what happens when that transport breaks down through illness or accident? It's a crisis for the owners and they seek to fix it or replace it as fast possible, not to miss a day's work. But some simply force a sick or injured horse to go on working. It's a sickening but not uncommon sight to see such animals struggling to pull carts bulging with heavy branches, scrap iron or produce, often whole families perched on top, adding to the weight.
As the week went on, the owners refused a very reasonable offer from us to buy the mare outright. They'd paid 1000 Bulgarian leva for her (I checked with the original seller) and illogically wanted a return on an investment which had gone wrong entirely through their own mismanagement of the mare, or at least an offer close to what they'd paid. It seemed incredible to us that they could not see what was before their eyes, a broken creature whose organs would soon shut down if they didn't stop making her work and give her the months of rest she needed. But this lack of logic, empathy and compassion seems endemic in the local Roma culture vis a vis horses- with a few notable exceptions leaving room for hope. LIFE's own hands on under manager is Roma and has vowed to never to let his own sweet filly suffer.
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Ilia with Star |
In the main, however, Roma owned horses are seen as commodities, not living creatures with the same ability to experience contentment or to suffer as other mammals do, including us. At the time of writing LIFE is still struggling to save the mare, without walking into the trap of paying over the odds for a sick horse, which would be akin to rewarding abuse. For daily updates on this case and others, check my Facebook page. To donate towards rent to keep the new facility for horses in need of rest available, click here. There are plenty more candidates out there ready to benefit from it.
In complete contrast to the sad ongoing saga above, here are recent images of LIFE's own Amber, rescued from neglect and cruelty when tiny. You can read more about Amber's story on an earlier blog post.
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Amber as she was and how she now is |
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Amber and Daniel |
Brought up with care but still as a horse in a herd who's sometimes asked by humans to work, she radiates contentment. All it takes is a little understanding. For us, the love comes naturally. But then we're educated, accepted people, not from a marginal culture obliged to fill carts with scrap metal or heavy wood to earn our daily bread. There are no easy answers to the welfare-of-horse versus need to work dilemma which faces the Roma here daily.
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