Letea horses to the slaughter - for money matters more than souls

When did the country of my heart become so cruel, so bloodthirsty and so, on the whole, indifferent. When did it happen? What caused such a lurch towards shameful, unpronouncably wicked acts? First patrimony, then dogs and now horses. LEGAL massacre? It is heinous and incomparably evil. Perhaps those responsible for such acts do not believe in karma and the old adage 'what goes around comes around'... well, they should. To quote the article below: 'Why are people so determined to take the animals to the slaughterhouse? Because they make money from the deal: 100 lei per horse and in Romania, money matters more than souls....' that just about puts it in a nutshell.

Today at 18h, Pta Victoriei, is a Flashmob protest - see info HERE on Facebook. Please, if you care just a little bit about the plight of these beautiful horses, go and make your voice heard. What kind of country sits back and lets things like this happen? This goes way beyond shameful, way beyond immoral. Money matters more than souls... for shame... FOR SHAME!!!! Is this what Roumania has come to?

This from Bucharest Herald (English version corrected - Roumanian version follows beneath it):

The Letea horses, whose story has triggered a wave of compassion and anger from the public, have an uncertain future. The authorities state they are not wild, but "bred a little differently than usual" and their ownership is set according to local law. The 71 wild horses captured in Letea Forest, their last sanctuary in Europe, were taken to the slaughterhouse on Thursday although blood test results are not back yet. Police can do nothing about it.

Danube Delta governor Grigore Baboianu said the "first thing misunderstood" about Delta horses is that they're wild. "There are no wild horses in the Delta. Whoever said otherwise is wrong," Baboianu said, adding that this matter must be taken into consideration when discussing the issue of horses in the C.A. Rosetti commune.

The governor and the head of the Tulcea Sanitary-Veterinary Department added that ownership of the horses is set according to "local law."

"These horses belonged to the locals, they were brought here to the Delta by people who settled here. People then chose, for various reasons, to breed them a little differently than is customary to the rest of the country. The horses were allowed to roam freely, used only sometimes for the occasional household chores. Others were born in the so-called wild and live in what we call 'horse communities' of the Delta," Baboianu told Mediafax on Thursday. He added that there are between 1-4,000 horses there.

The scandal surrounding the horses of C.A. Rosetti broke out on Wednesday when several NGOs released pictures of the animals held in enclosures, much weakened and showing bleeding wounds. The horses were to be sent to the slaughterhouse. Social networks were filled with messages containing words such as "massacre" and desperate calls to send petitions to the authorities from the mayor of the commune to the head of state.

"It seems the police cannot do anything about it. The proverbial inertia will take it toll again. Chances that they escape alive are very low," Vier Pfoten association project coordinator Kuki Barbuceanu told Realitatea. "The locals own the wild horses and the owners want to sell them to the slaughterhouse. It's perfectly legal," Barbuceanu added.

Part of the captured horses were taken to a slaughterhouse in Brasov County and the others to the Agrocompany slaughterhouse in Hunedoara, according to jurnalul.ro. Why are people so determined to take the animals to the slaughterhouse? Because they make money from the deal: 100 lei per horse and in Romania, money matters more than souls.

The 71 wild horses - 51 adults and 20 colts - were initially captured by locals at the request of the Tulcea Forest Department and the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Administration because they allegedly destroy the forest by eating tree bark. Then, after people realized they could make money from this, all of a sudden, owners appeared for every horse. They sold them to one person, who decided to take them to the slaughterhouse.

The 2,500 wild horses of Letea Forest in the Danube Delta, are the last in Europe. They are one of Romania's real treasures.
 

Masacru legal  in Romania secolului 21: Caii sălbatici din Delta Dunarii ajung la abator pt 100 de lei

Caii de la Letea, ale căror imagini au stârnit în ultimele zile compasiune, mânie şi reacţii publice, au un statut incert, pentru autorităţi ei nefiind sălbatici, ci doar "crescuţi puţin altfel decât se obişnuieşte", regimul lor de proprietate stabilindu-se după "legea locului".  Cei 71 de cai sălbatici capturaţi din pădurea Letea, ultimul refugiu din Europa al acestor animale, au fost duşi joi la abator, deşi analizele de sânge nu au venit. Poliţia nu poate să facă nimic.

Guvernatorul Deltei Dunării, Grigore Baboianu, declară tranşant că "primul lucru greşit înţeles" despre caii din Deltă este acela că sunt sălbatici. "În Deltă nu trăiesc cai sălbatici. Nu există cai sălbatici acolo. Cine spune asta greşeşte", afirmă Baboianu, care pretinde că aceasta este premisa de la care trebuie pornită discuţia despre caii din zona comunei tulcene C. A. Rosetti, subiect fierbinte în presa ultimelor zile.

Teoria lui este susţinută şi de Marinela Tertiş, şeful Direcţiei Sanitar-Veterinare Tulcea care, într-un comunicat de presă de joi, afirmă sec: "În judeţul Tulcea nu există declarată ca specie distinctă «Calul Sălbatic»".

 Potrivit acestora, proprietatea asupra acestor cai este stabilită după "o lege a locului".

"Aceşti cai au aparţinut localnicilor, au fost aduşi aici, în Deltă, de cei care s-au stabilit în aceste locuri. Oamenii au ales apoi, din diverse motive, să-i crească puţin altfel decât se obişnuieşte în restul ţării. Caii au fost lăsaţi să umble liberi, fiind folosiţi doar uneori pentru anumite treburi gospodăreşti. Alţii s-au născut în aşa-numita sălbăticie şi trăiesc în ceea ce noi numim comunităţile de cabaline din Deltă", a declarat, joi, pentru Mediafax, Grigore Baboianu. El a precizat că numărul cailor este situat undeva între 1.000 şi 4.000 de exemplare.

Scandalul legat de caii de la C. A. Rosetti a izbucnit miercuri, după ce mai multe ONG-uri au dat publicităţii imagini cu animalele tinute în ţarcuri, caii fiind slăbiţi şi având răni sângerânde. Caii ar fi urmat să fie trimişi la un abator. Reţelele de socializare s-au umplut de mesaje conţinând cuvinte precum "masacru" şi de îndemnuri disperate la transmiterea de petiţii către autorităţi, de la primarul din comuna tulceană până la şeful statului.
"Poliţia se pare că nu poate face încă nimic. Inerţia proverbială îşi va spune din nou cuvântul. Şansele ca ei să scape sunt extrem de mici", a declarat Kuki Bărbuceanu, coordonator de proiecte al asociaţiei Vier Pfoten, pentru Realitatea.net.

"Localnicii sunt proprietarii cailor sălbatici, iar proprietarii vor să îi vândă la abator. Este legal ce se întâmplă", a precizat Bărbuceanu.
O parte din caii capturaţi au fost duşi la un abator din judeţul Braşov, iar ceilalţi la abatorul Agrocompany aflat în Hunedoara, potrivit jurnalul.ro.
De ce sunt atât de înverşunaţi localnicii să ducă animalele la abator? Pentru că ei câştigă bani din această "afacere":  1 milion de lei vechi pe cal, iar în România banii contează mai mult decât sufletele.

Cei 71 de cai sălbatici  - 51 de adulţi şi 20 de mânji - au fost capturaţi iniţial de localnicii din C.A Rosetti la presiunea Direcţiei Silvice Tulcea şi a Administraţiei Rezervaţiei Biosferei Deltei Dunării pentru că ar distruge pădurea, ronţăind coaja copacilor. Apoi, după ce oamenii au realizat că pot scoate bani de pe urma animalelor, au apărut brusc proprietari pentru toţi caii - unii având documente, alţii având declaraţii. Aceştia au vândut animalelor unei singure persoane, care a decis să le ducă la abator.

Perioada petrecută de cai în ţarcuri a fost infernală pentru ei: ţinuţi fără mâncare, în grupuri amestecate, armăsarii au început să se bată între ei, provocându-şi răni grave şi călcând în picioare mânjii.

Cei aproximativ 2.500 de cai sălbatici din Pădurea Letea, din Delta Dunării, sunt ultimii din Europa, fiind o adevărată comoară a României.

Comments

[sairj]

Emotion can make one react in a way which perhaps isn't quite kosher, particularly in a language not ones own and I'm sure V didn't mean it to be taken in the way it was. I'm certain he will apologise when he sees how cross his comment made you. And I also totally agree on the reasons for the passivity that you voice (or rather, type!). After all, if one fights and fights for the basic stuff in life continually there's not much energy left for anything else - and we are talking here of the most basic of things...

I wrote a blog a while back after the death of C.Paturca and I remember having the same conversation with someone else, about hope. In the end, it was much the same conclusion. If you don't believe that any difference can be made because of the constant bashing of disappointment and deception (politically, mostly), one ends up not bothering. I completely understand that. But its a two bladed edge, of course - how can one get things to be any better if one doesnt fight for it. And loss of hope or no hope at all is the beginning of the end.

its all very well for me to get up on my soapbox and preach from my comfy flat in Paris when I do not have to live what many Bucharesteans (and other Roumanians) must. I realise that. truly. I just wish, so wish, that some kind of reaction would occur. Some kind of catalyst that would breathe life back into a people that seems, for the majority, to have dozed off in some enchanted version of Sleepy Hollow...what can be done to arouse feeling, indignance...? In any other country, the demolitions alone would have caused a massive uprising.

I'm not only talking about the horses, now, Andreea, but everythng that calls for something to be done. The demolitions, the dogs, the horses, the closure of hospitals, the diminishing of what was always a good educational system even under communism (however warped it may have been, the education was thorough)... and there's the other side of the argument - so much has gone belly up...where to start?

I keep going round in circles. nice to have you here Andreea. Welcome to Sarah In Romania! :o)

[Andreea]

I understand how one could argue that not enough Romanians react in matters like this, some more outrageous than others. My personal belief is that the "inertia" state you mentioned is directly caused by a permanent fight for the basic needs of existence...a fight that not only makes many passive to anything that does not directly affect their daily existence, but clearly brings many to a desperate state while even dehumanizing others.

I completely agree that there are many out there who can afford being more proactive and react not only to those issues related to their individual needs. There is indeed a real need for more of those people in Romania, and not only.

However, while I understand one's outrage to this cruelty, it is by no means the way to express it, nore an excuse to make such statements. It is another behavior tendency that is also wrong and calls for a reaction.

[sairj]

Andreea, I am sure that is not what V meant... it was an outpouring of horror I read there, along with a great disappointment and sadness and Valentin could hardly say it how you took it since he too is Romanian... However one has to admit that the country really has sunk into, as the article says, 'proverbial inertia'. I'd go further and call it terminal passivity.

First the patrimony gets demolished and continues to be. Visarion, Matache, Povernei, Alecsandri, Rosetti, Grivitei, Berzei, Buzesti... who moves? A handful of people you could count on two hands and maybe a foot. The large majority being OUTSIDE the country.

Then the dreadful killings of the maidanezi... who moved for that? The same. A small handful in Romania (and palaria jos to them) but for the most part, it was from outside (nancy Janes, Romanian Stray Dog Voices, brigitte bardot and a mass of inumerable blogs) that the alarm was sounded bringing the condamnation it did.
And now it's the horses...

What is it that caused the majority of the country to simply be indifferent? I'm not saying everyone is but those who are outweigh those who aren't. It pains me so to say it. I know many who are not indifferent. The Nicusor Dans, the Roxana Wrings, the Doina Vellas and Silvia Colfescus of Roumania who fight and fight and fight every day against what is happening around them. But they are a minority.

When there is a protest, do you see hundreds of people out there in the streets to defend their patrimony, their maidanezi, their horses, their heritage. No. Its always the same people who are becoming more and more exhausted by the day...

Roumania is the country of my heart and its people are also a little mine. I was not born there and am not of Roumanian blood. And yet I fell in love with it and I will fight for it every day of my life whereas I would not fight for the country in which I was born. It breaks my heart to say it, Andreea. But oen has to admit, inertia, passivity, merge si asa are the attitudes that are so wide spread it is truly shameful. You must feel it too.. Life is so tough its enough to deal with ones own hassles without bothering with houses, dogs and horses I guess. But it has to stop. People have to become indignant. they have to finally want to stand up and defend what is theirs by birth, through hard work, through legal right. Indeed you are indignant at the comment from V - parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters deserve better. they are worth fighting for. Their heritage, their history, their patrimony, their memories. And yet...no one moves. Like the final scene in Waiting for Godot. "Let's go," says Vladimir. yet no one moves...

[Andreea]

It's a bit concerning (to say the least) when you come across this type of comments, whether they are made by my fellow Romanians or not. Haven't we, people sharing this planet, reached a level of civilization that allows us to be more open minded and respectful not simply to our own nation but everyone else?! When you write "ROMANIANS are so lazy so careless, so indiferrent" you must know that you are putting down every single person of Romanian nationality, including their mother, father, grandmother, etc.! Or maybe you think that there is no Romanian out there who is a good, sensitive, hardworking human being??? Is it not wrong to blame a whole nation for the actions of the few?! If this was the right approach then I assume people who have this flawed logic despise every single nationality in this world!

[valentin]

It makes me sick and tired.No kindness, no decency just greedy beeings. Can't say ,,human beeings", just beeings. Animals are not so cruel. Romanians are so lazy so careless, so indiferrent! It really makes me sick