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02. 09. 10. - 13:00

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02. 09. 10. - 13:00

Romania cracks whip over horse abuse

Cash strapped Romanian officials are cracking down on locals who work their horses into the ground - then dump them for local councils to look after.

When Romania joined the EU there were tens of thousands of working horses in the country and local councils were forced to set up stray horse sanctuaries after they were dumped in their hundreds when EU rules banned them from main roads.

Before then horses had been used to pull wooden carts along the city's streets or worked in the fields as they had done in the country for centuries.

Pitifully thin and bearing the scars of frequent beatings, most of the horses ended up being sent to the slaughterhouse as there is little demand for an ailing animal in a country where there were until recently an estimated one million working horses.

But now officials have decided to crack down on owners who have decided it is cheaper to dump the animals than to keep them.

In response to the problem the government is now enforcing tough fines and jail sentences for anyone found to have beaten or abandoned a horse - starting this week with a case in Suceava, in northern Romania.

Motorists called local officials after seeing this more dead than alive animal lying beside the road - who said they did not have a place for the abandoned animal that had been cut free from the cart and left to die at the side of the road.

So instead they tracked down the owner and ordered him to collect the horse - and pay for its care and medication until it gets back on its feet - with a fine of up to 2,500 euros if the animal dies.

The horse owner - a 15-year-old gypsy boy - is being monitored by vets to supervise the treatment.

A local council spokesman said: "We no longer have the resources to care for the animals - it is time to makle sure horse owners accept their responsibilities instead of simply dumping horses every time they are too ill to work."

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