James Cromwell Urges Egyptian Government to End Rampant Abuse of Horses and Camels
James Cromwell Urges Egyptian Government to End Rampant Abuse of Horses and Camels
London – Today, legendary actor and Academy Award nominee James Cromwell sent an urgent letter to Egypt’s minister of tourism and antiquities, Sherif Fathy, calling on him to take immediate action to end the widespread abuse of camels and horses who are forced to haul tourists at the pyramids of Giza in the sweltering heat.
In the letter, Cromwell notes that the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities promised meaningful changes after a 2019 PETA Asia investigation first exposed egregious animal abuse at the country’s top tourist sites. Yet PETA Asia’s latest investigation documented that handlers violently whipped exhausted horses in front of the tourists they had been forced to haul in the blistering sun – with no access to food, rest, adequate shade, or proper veterinary care. Injured and malnourished horses were seen eating from rubbish dumps, and the bodies of dead horses were found discarded every day at waste sites outside the pyramids of Giza.
“When their bodies give out, these gentle, sensitive animals are left to die and their bodies are dumped in the piles of trash just behind the pyramid complex,” writes Cromwell. “[W]hile it’s encouraging to hear that at PETA’s urging, you have introduced a few electric vehicles and added some water for the animals, Egyptian authorities have chosen to shut their eyes to the extreme and obvious cruelty that horses and camels are subjected to.”
PETA’s latest video exposé revealed that market traders punched camels and beat them with batons and that one trader threw sand into a camel’s face. A dead camel was tied by their feet to a truck and dragged through the streets, and another was found dead in the middle of a road with their throat slashed open. When camels were no longer considered useful, they were often hauled to a slaughterhouse, where their throats were slit while they were still conscious.
“Egypt is a magical place with so much to see and experience, but no one wants to have cruelty to animals included in their travel plans,” Cromwell’s letter concludes. “Please end the suffering at the pyramids now.”
Cromwell is an Emmy Award–winning actor who was nominated for an Academy Award for the film Babe and has appeared in television shows including Succession and Six Feet Under and in other movies like L.A. Confidential over his decades-long career.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.
Contact:
Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327; [email protected]
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