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'No excuse' for starved horses

By Wang Zhuoqiong (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-13 08:39

More than 30 horses have died of starvation at Beijing Jockey Club, and a large number of thoroughbreds are in a severely malnourished condition, outraging animal activists who are renewing their call for China to enact an animal welfare law.

A horse is seen with wounds on its leg at Beijing Jockey Club. [Wang Jing]

The club was the biggest horse racing and thoroughbred breeding facility in China when it opened in 2003 but was closed in 2005 for alleged on-site gambling.

Club operator Kevin Connolly said club staff from nearby villages are now stockpiling enough feed to last for six weeks.

The workers had provided feed and hay for the horses three times a day, up until September.

The horses were starved in August and September because of a blockade staged by local villagers over a land dispute, Connolly said.

The villagers, who signed a 30-year lease with the club in 1997, wanted to raise the rent but club officials refused.

So the villagers blocked the main gates to the 160-hectare facility, preventing staff and feed deliveries from entering.

Police were called in but said they could not interfere if there was no violence, Connelly said.

The stables didn't have enough feed for the horses to last through the blockade, he said.

"We are now trying to bring the horses back to health," Connolly said.

But some younger horses at the range on Wednesday still looked thin.

The rest of the horses "won't survive this winter" if practices aren't changed, according to experts from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

Some of the weaker horses died from their ordeal the last two months. One horse died on Wednesday from hitting walls, Connolly said. This horse was spotted lying upside down in a garbage refuse truck before being buried.

Connolly apologized for not covering the dead horse during the transportation. Whatever the reason for the dispute, experts from IFAW said the starvation of the horses was inexcusable.

"It is the responsibility of the owners to take necessary action, such as legal action, to reduce the damage," said Dr Kati Loeffler, veterinary adviser to the IFAW.

"The tragedy is, if this was Hong Kong, Europe, Australia, or anywhere with strong animal welfare laws, this could not have happened."

Starving horses would not be allowed to happen even more than one day in places where animal welfare laws are in place, Loeffler said.

According to people who investigated what happened, the club owners somehow managed to feed the very expensive horses during the ordeal.

"Clearly the club is protecting their money, not their animals," Loeffler said.

The owners should have to mobilize their resources to protect their animals.

"These people are very wealthy," she said. "I believe they have the resources to rescue horses."

The club's owner, Yung Pung Cheng, has kept the facility running in a hope the government will lift the ban on horse race betting soon.

Connolly said the club has 1,750 thoroughbreds, and new mares were still imported for breeding.

But he admitted that the horses "look terrible."

"But genuinely, it wasn't our fault," he said. "I love horses; they are my life. You can imagine how I felt about that."

The club made headlines in 2005 when it reportedly killed 500 horses after the shutdown.

Connolly said the number was around 120, and that the culling was in line with international practices, as the horses were retired or barren.

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