Cuban animal defender Dennis Valdés Pilar reported on his Facebook wall a new case of animal abuse that occurred in Sancti Spíritus, where he resides.
Dennis shared a photo of a horse that its owners use to pull a people transport vehicle, which, exhausted from so many hours of work, collapsed in the middle of the street.
"This animal here collapsed, I don't have to tell the story, we know or imagine what could have happened. In my case I saw it, it couldn't stand up for a long time. The owner kept hitting it and dragging it by its tail. Even after getting up they put the steering wheel back on it," the young man explained.
The video clearly shows how a man hits the horse with a whip up to 13 times, before pulling its tail and kicking it more than once.
According to the young animal welfare activist, in Sancti Spíritus horse carts are used to transport up to eight to 10 people, as well as excessively heavy loads, from one side of the city to the other.
"I haven't ridden one in 15 years, it's too abusive. I walk, ride a bike or wait for the bus," he stressed.
The use of animal-drawn cars to transport people is a widely used option in Cuba, given the public transportation crisis.
However, many owners commit real abuse against their animals, forcing them to drag excessively large loads under the harsh Cuban sun, without giving them the rest or food they need.
Last September a jurist reported a case of animal abuse in Havana, where ahorse lay down on the ground with signs of fatigue, and there he spent more than eight hours exposed to the sun and heat.
The young Cecilia Gutiérrez found the horse on the sidewalk in front of her, on Apodaca Street in the Habana Vieja municipality, with signs of starvation, weakness and exhaustion, after having been exploited and not receiving adequate food and care.
According to what they told him, when he fell to the ground, instead of compassion, the horse received blows to try to get him up again.
"It breaks my soul to see these things and not be able to do anything, as a person it hurts me, it irritates me, it bothers me, as a jurist I ask myself:We have a new animal protection decree. Now, where are or when do the control mechanisms arrive to enforce the provisions of such a long-awaited legal body so that this does not become a dead law?!" he questioned.
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