Video: Horses Whipped, Camels Beaten Bloody For Egypt’s Tourism Industry

or Immediate Release:

15 April 2019

Contact:

Sascha Camilli +44 (0) 20 7923 6433; [email protected]

VIDEO: HORSES WHIPPED, CAMELS BEATEN BLOODY FOR EGYPT’S TOURISM INDUSTRY

PETA Calls For Animal Ban at Tourist Sites Following Revelations That Weak, Wounded Animals Were Forced to Carry Tourists in the Hot Sun

London – A new PETA Asia investigation of the top tourism destinations in Egypt – including the Great Pyramid of Giza, Saqqara, and Luxor – has revealed horrific abuse of horses and camels forced to haul visitors on their backs or in carriages in blistering heat without shade, food, or water. Eyewitnesses also documented that camels were beaten at the Birqash Camel Market before being sold to the tourism industry. In response, PETA is calling for a ban on the use of working animals at tourist sites in the country.

Video footage shows handlers in Giza violently beating a horse who’d collapsed on her side while being forced to pull a carriage. She was severely injured by her fall, but they continued to beat her until she got back up. Many horses used for rides in Giza and Luxor had painful, bloody wounds and were forced to wait in the scorching sun for the next paying customer – without food, water, or access to shade. Emaciated horses whose ribs showed through their skin were repeatedly yanked and whipped. And at the notorious Birqash Camel Market, men and children were observed viciously beating screaming camels with sticks. Many of the animals’ faces were bloody, and one camel foamed at the mouth.

“It’s disgraceful that exhausted, emaciated animals in Egypt are beaten and whipped into giving endless rides in the heat, even as their legs buckle and they collapse,” says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “PETA is calling on the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism to replace these abused animals with modern vehicles such as electric rickshaws so that tourists can appreciate the country’s rich history without supporting cruelty to animals.”

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” – notes that once the camels sold at the Birqash market are no longer able to give rides around the Giza and Saqqara pyramids, they’re returned to the market and sent to be slaughtered.

PETA Asia’s letter to Minister of Tourism Rania Al-Mashat is available upon request.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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