On Monday (April 15th) the state attorney dropped all charges in the Totilas abuse case. The charges had been filed by the German branch of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).
The charges were aimed at Totilass' owners, Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff and Paul Shockemöhle, trainer Klaus-Martin Rath and rider Matthias Rath. PETA claimed that Totilas, a 13 year old Dutch Warmblood Gelding was being abused since he was kept in isolation from other horses and was forced to endure Rollkur during training sessions.
A group of 6 experts and an animal welfare officer then visited Totilas' farm last December looking for signs and evidence of abuse.
In response to the charges being dropped, Klaus-Martin told Dressursport Deutshland: "The animal welfare officer quickly saw that neither the images nor the videos of any evidence came from here. And the criticism of the training, it is indeed more of a religious war. This debate being wages is not factual. But now we have the law on our side, and stating that this is absolutely not a case of cruelty to animals may be important for the entire equestrian sport".
Hmmm, I'm still not sure about the whole thing? Surely they should be relying on peoples videos as evidence (as pictures are just a snapshot and it could always be just a bad photo) in cases like this. When the animal welfare officer turned up they're hardly going to show them their Rollkur and other cruel training regimes? I'm just not sure about it all ... I do think something is going on with Totilas as he just doesn't have the same spark as he used to.
Am I just being a cow or am I right ... in a way?
No comments:
Post a Comment