Organizations and activists that protect horses mobilized towards the National Congress to request the “end of blood traction” and “the promulgation of animal protection laws”-
Within the framework of the National Horse Day, the call was launched by 15 animal protection organizations under the slogan “Argentina Without TAS (Blood Traction)”.
The demonstrators requested laws to end this activity, since they consider that “generates slavery in horses”
In the surroundings of the Congress, the activists they handed out flyers and put up posters in order to raise awareness about animal abuse.
The TAS includes the informal activity of urban waste collection in which a horse is involved.
In this sense, from the protection organizations that participated in the mobilization they remarked that the people who use this mode of transport “they find themselves in a very high job insecurity and often end up being oppressed and reduced to the most undignified conditions”.
In turn, they stressed that in this activity “there is a prevalence of child labor and exploitation and in this way children also end up being victims” and assured that “children are also potential adult perpetrators, learning abuse at an early age”
In this sense, they considered that the animals “are also daily victims of the mistreatment to which they are exposed: lacerated, malnourished, dehydrated, one-eyed, lame, without horseshoes.”
The organizations ask for a bill whose axes are to promote the substitution of animal blood traction for other sustainable means such as motor or electric traction; prohibit the traction to animal blood throughout the territory and ensure the fate of the animals subject to substitution so that they can be treated with the dignity they deserve according to their natural rights, keeping them away from any commercial circuit.
In this sense, Gabriela Rosas Tineo, member of the organization Volunteers for Horsestold Télam that “we are mobilized to request the abolition of blood traction and to request an end to mistreatment of horses. We observe that in the middle of the 21st century there are districts that still continue to allow this modality that is harmful to both animals and for humans”.
At the same time, he stressed that “it is necessary to take a census in a limited period of time of all the people who continue to carry out this activity, so that these people can learn a trade or support them so that they can finish their studies.”
In relation to mobility, Rosas Tineo stated that “there are a lot of replacement vehicles, such as motor vehicles, motorcycles or bicycles, which can be a replacement for blood traction and it is necessary for the state to participate in finding new solutions to the problem.”
About the situation of animals that are rescuedthe activist emphasized that “the vast majority are in an atrocious state, with poor nutrition and consequences. In some cases, they suffer such mistreatment that they die in the recovery process and those who recover have marks of the damage suffered.”
Rosas Trineo also maintained that “It cannot be that in the 21st century there is still bloody traction in the country. An urgent change is necessary for this to end.”
The celebration of Horse Day is an initiative of the Argentine Equestrian Federation which thus recognizes the importance of this animal in the history of the country as “tribute to the participation of the equine in the historical and economic organization, and in the sporting life of Argentina”.
The choice of this date is due to the arrival of Aimé Félix Tschiffely in New York, a Swiss rider who made an intense itinerary through the American geography, in a tour that lasted from April 1925 to September 1928 and that allowed him to demonstrate the endurance of Creole horses.
