A total of 21 of the animals that received assistance were due to injuries in the arena mostly “minor injuries or trauma”as reported by the Municipality of Montevideo, after a request for access to information.
Beyond the horse that died, another “He suffered a serious trauma, but after the assistance he recovered and returned to his place of origin,” ensures the document signed by Pablo Barletta, head of Celebrations and Shows of the commune.
“Followed up over the subsequent weeks, we were informed by the owner that the recovery of the horse had
been total.”, continues the text you accessed The Observer.
Regarding the death that inspired the NGO Animalist Platform demand the suspension of the event -decision that the mayor dismissed-, the commune document reports: “A horse died during the week as a result of a pelvic fracture suffered in the jineteadawhich caused a massive internal blood spill. The death happened while he was being transferred for his care.”
In the 2023 edition, 496 horses participated: 394 foals and 102 tame, according to information from the administration. Of these, 37 foals and 11 tame horses were assisted.
“More or less we notice that it is always the same. Beyond that there is more care,” he told The Observer, Karina Kokar from Animalist Platform. “Since 2018 we have been working there with an observatory, which was our proposal.. This led to greater control, more care and different measures. but ultimately the activity is so forced, so cruel, that there are many injuries. So there is no way to improve so that accidents do not happen,” she said.
On the other hand, regarding the riders, 14 required medical attention, of which five went to the State Insurance Bank (BSE)according to information from the commune.
“Those of us who regret this death the most”
Barletta had told The Observer in April, that the administration works “all year to minimize the chances of these types of accidents,” sometimes, “cannot be avoided.”
“We are the ones who regret this death the most”he assured.
“They are accidents. This animal fell sitting down and he had a very unlucky fracture. It caused internal bleeding later that caused his death during the transfer by the company we hired for these purposes: ua special ambulance for horses”the engineer explained.
On that occasion, Barletta He detailed the current protocols for caring for animals, listed the objects with now less harmful designs, and assured that there is an observatory on the conditions in which the horses are found. “It’s open”, but this year animal protection organizations “decided not to participate”, maintained the hierarch.
The owner of Celebrations and Shows highlighted that the Criolla is an event that has been held for 96 years in the capital of the country. “All the departments do horse riding. This one in Montevideo is the largest and it is also the one where the animals are most cared for. It has recognition and prestige throughout the country, and even throughout the region, for this reason,” he claimed.
John Samuelle
Animalist Platform and the organization Libera! They demonstrated against the Criolla in Rural del Prado, where the event was held
Why the NGO left the observatory
Kokar coincided this Wednesday in dialogue with The Observer, with the diagnosis of what happens inside. “What we managed to verify that what happens here in Montevideo It has no comparison with what happens in the interior of the countrywhere there is no no control at all, where the horses die every weekend and it is something completely naturalized”Kocar said.
However, the spokeswoman for the NGO explained why in 2023 decided not to participate in the observatory – that they themselves proposed next to “other proposals”, because “while this continues” it seemed to them “that several actions had to be taken”–.
Plataforma Animalista met with the Director of Culture of the Municipality of Montevideo, María Inés Obaldía, to inform her that they would leave the observatory.
The document that was presented to her on that occasion regarding what happened in 2022 recalled that “in the previous meeting” with her before the Creoles that year, they asked the hierarch “that if a horse dies in the ring, activities are suspended”. “Mrs. Obaldía did not take this request seriously and only answered us “that no horse was going to die”“, says the text to which he accessed The Observer.
“Creole Week 2022 ended with a dead animal and with the Municipality of Montevideo trying to hide what happened,” he continues. “The information came to us from unofficial sources and when we tried to contact the authorities to confirm the death of the animal, We were not attended to or answered our calls.”
“They wanted to keep it non-public until the Creoles finished, because it happened a few hours before,” Kokar said on Wednesday. “We found it disrespectful. We decided not to continue. In addition, the way of communication they had regarding the life of the animal also caught our attention. the publication I was inside a post from the mayor’s office on social networks where it said that the party ended with total success and below it appeared as ‘a horse died’, as if nothing, as if a flag or a pipe had broken,” continued the NGO spokesperson.
“They should have been transparent,” Kokar added.
“María Inés (Obaldía) assumed responsibility for that communicationapologized, but we We had already made the decision not to participate.
