Horse welfare
In the nineteenth century, when the sight of a horse dying while working was commonplace, the first wave of awareness was born with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the publication of the novel Black Beauty in England.
The International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI) now prohibits certain specific training methods, including poling and Rollkur, as have several countries, notably Switzerland.
Pierre Enoff suggests that globally, this situation is more akin to a bondage that imposes prison-like conditions on the horse, as opposed to a symbiotic relationship between human and animal.
The author, Anna Sewell, shows herself to be ahead of her time in terms of animal protection: her novel takes a stand against checkreins, blinkers, and tail docking.
Anna Sewell shows that this animal of flesh and blood, who feels pain and sadness, does not have a place in the urban environment and the industrial society of London".
Jacques Philippe Delmas de Grammont, a former cavalry officer, created a league for the protection of the horse in 1850 and helped to pass the law that bears his name that year, prohibiting the deliberate abuse of animals.
However, the great figure of equine defense in the middle of the century was American Velma Bronn Johnston, called "Wild Horse Annie".
Considering this victory to be insufficient, Velma Bronn Johnston managed to bring about the passage of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act in 1971 by Richard Nixon, which bans any mistreatment of mustangs.
Conversely, Australia passed no laws related to its local wild horses introduced at the end of the 18th century in response to the needs of settlers, nor its donkeys.
[citation needed] In Spain, the frequent evisceration of horses in bullfighting arenas pushed Miguel Primo de Rivera to mandate the use of a protective cape, called the peto, in 1928.
In 1932, Ernest Hemingway wrote Death in the Afternoon, which describes the indefensible side of the murder of these horses from the perspective of his contemporaries, although he himself found them funny.
American show-jumper Michal Morrissey was fined 5000 euros and suspended for three months for having struck his horse thirteen times with a riding crop as punishment during a competition in Florida in 2010.
The production of conjugated estrogens sold under the name Premarin (with pregnant mare urine as the primary ingredient) is widely criticized (including by PETA and the Animal Liberation Front) as abusive.
[citation needed] Controversy around rollkur first arose in 2005 with the release of a German news article denouncing the Dutch methods of training for dressage, notably that of forcing the horse's nose to the chest using reins.
The article provoked a violent debate in the world of equestrian sports, extending to death threats against riders thought to train their horses with rollkur, and competition organizers who allowed them to do so.
Unwanted horses from US territory are sent to Mexico, Canada, and Brazil to be slaughtered, travelling over long distances and in hellish conditions to reach the slaughterhouses, creating a high level of stress.
Though a too-thin horse is clearly suffering, a state of obesity, more difficult to identify, causes as many physical problems, including a high risk of laminitis.
According to Päivi Nussbaumer, veterinarian at the Institut suisse de médecine équine (ISME), "surgical castration is demanding, painful, and can lead to severe complications".
The introduction of alcohol, spices or other irritants into the anus or vagina, called gingering, is used to force the horse to hold its tail higher and to give a more dashing impression.
This petition follows a long investigation into the practices of professional riders, including photographs and autopsies of high-level horses with physical damage due to equestrianism.
Among horses that are victims of a hard hand, the tongue can turn blue with the action of the bit and bridle, a "very painful" phenomenon that can cause "irreversible lingual lesions".
Sports riders also tend to employ coercive mechanical means, including reins and severe bits, to push the horse to maintain the attitude they are looking for over the course of patient training.
[37][38] However, "progress" was made in 2014, to the extent that injured Chinese fighting stallions are no longer systematically killed and consumed on the spot by being cooked on the barbeque, but are treated for their injuries.
Breeders are responsible for the sale to slaughterhouses, particularly in the overproduction of racehorses, whereby three-quarters do not pass racecourse selection tests, and in the absence of withdrawal solutions to provide a "second career" to these animals.
Eric Baratay and Jean-Pierre Digard explain the rejection of horsemeat consumption in developed countries by a change in the status of the horse, as it is becoming close to a pet.
Among the most active in France are the Brigitte Bardot Foundation (which campaigns against horsemeat consumption), the 30 Million Friends Association, the French League for the Protection of the Horse (the oldest), the Centre d'hébergement des équidés maltraités, and One Voice.
This is the case in Switzerland, where the latest version of the Ordinance on the Protection of Animals, in force since 1 January 2014, prohibits many interventions on the horse and requires that detention conditions respect its welfare, including regular movement and outings of at least 2 hours per day.
Calls for donations permit the purchase of horses destined for slaughter, but the people acquiring them do not always have the knowledge or the financial means to ensure their welfare over the long term.
Similarly, the natural horsemanship approach (treeless saddles, bits without mouthpieces, bare feet...) sometimes leads to the inappropriate use of equipment, or its removal when it is necessary.
Since digitization provides easy and fast access to photos, movies, and articles, which also be spread quickly worldwide, everything is an open field compared to earlier (https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/6/3/16).
