In Japan, a horse's death spurs calls for festival of 'obvious' animal abuse to be cancelled
The death of a horse during a centuries-old riding festival in Japan has prompted an animal rights organisation to accuse the event's organisers of animal cruelty in the name of "entertainment".
The Life Investigation Agency NGO last month filed criminal complaints with the police in Mie prefecture against more than 130 people linked to the Ageuma Shinji (Rising Horse) festival in the city of Kuwana, after gathering information from video footage and photographs, as well as attendees of the event.
Ren Yabuki, the group's founder, said he filed the complaints after a former racehorse called Merzouga had to be put down when it broke a leg during the festival.
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
The two-day event challenges riders from six city districts to encourage their mounts to run along a 100-metre (328-feet) track up a steep hill that includes clearing a difficult two-metre high embankment before they can enter the precincts of the Tado Taisha Shinto shrine.
Horses frequently balk at the obstacle and footage shows onlookers slapping them as they approach the embankment, as well as hitting them with ropes, sticks and whips.
"Following a backlash over the euthanisation of Merzouga, a council made up of shrine officials, representatives of the prefecture, local police and local residents met behind closed doors on June 19 at the shrine," Yabuki said.
"The council then told local media that the structure of the hill, including the wall, was to be reviewed."
Yabuki's group accuses the jockeys, event organisers, shrine officials and functionaries from the six districts that selected the horses for the event of violating animal welfare laws.
A similar complaint has been filed against the festival's on-site veterinary surgeon, claiming he failed in his duty to report animal abuse to the prefectural authorities and police.
Yabuki said his complaint was backed by 140 incidents caught on video and that while forcing the horses to mount a dangerously high wall was wrong, that was only one element of animal rights activists' objections.
He said that the entire environment was dangerous for the horses, and that being surrounded by people who yell at them and subject them to violence was also "extremely stressful" for the animals.
Ensuring the safety of the horses and spectators in such an environment was "impossible", he said.
"Unless the obvious acts of abuse - beating the horses with sticks, punching and kicking them, hitting them with ropes and yelling - are recognised as violations of the Animal Protection Law, then the fundamental problem behind this ritual will never be resolved," he said.
"The event has been transformed from a tradition into entertainment and it needs to be ended as soon as possible."
The festival, which dates back nearly seven centuries, was held this year for the first time in three years due to the pandemic, but became the subject of a barrage of online criticism when images appeared on social media sites in May.
Critics insist the festival was originally a parade on horseback through city streets by people wearing elaborate costumes who arrived at the shrine to pay homage to the gods and to pray for a good harvest. Only in recent decades - apparently since the end of the 1940s - has the additional obstacle of the embankment been added to make the festival more of a spectacle and to attract more visitors.
In a statement, a city council official said it first began to receive complaints about animal cruelty in 2004 and that the criticism has increased gradually. The official said no animal rights activists protested at the festival but added that it had since "received feedback from many people".
The shrine issued their own statement that said the well-being of the horses had been discussed in advance with the city government and animal welfare organisations.
It added that those involved had "strived" to comply with laws, and that there had been a "lot of misinformation" about the injuries sustained by the horses.
Yabuki said the organisers' claims were inadequate and that legal action was the only way to protect the horses expected to take part in next year's festival.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
