24.09.2024
New Undercover Investigation Serves as a Warning to Tourists
Cairo – A has revealed that, despite pledging for years to end the rampant abuse of camels and horses forced to haul tourists through Giza in the sweltering heat, Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has allowed it to continue virtually unchecked – and is even attempting to cover it up.
PETA’s new reveals that malnourished horses ate rubbish out of bins and that those too weak to stand were forced onto their feet. Investigators found bodies of dead horses dumped at rubbish sites outside the pyramids of Giza on a daily basis. Horses had wounds that were hidden under their saddles, were violently whipped in front of the tourists they had been forced to haul, had no access to food or adequate shade, and were kept in the dark in a stable that reeked of ammonia. Market traders punched camels and beat the animals with batons, and one 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. In addition, a first-ever look into an abattoir in Egypt reveals that camels’ throats were slit while they were fully conscious and the animals were left to writhe in agony on the bloody floor.
Instead of cracking down on this abuse, police – along with a representative from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities – intimidated concerned visitors at tourist sites. On one occasion, police detained a visitor at the pyramids who had been taking pictures and demanded that they delete any photos or videos of the camels and horses, falsely claiming that it’s against the law to photograph them. Then, they wiped and confiscated the camera’s memory card.
“The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has had ample time to do right by horses and camels, but rather than provide relief to animals tormented for tourist rides, it instead chooses only to try and cover up the abuse,” says PETA Senior Policy Advisor Mimi Bekhechi. “PETA is calling on authorities to stop the rampant torment of horses and camels, and urging travellers to avoid animal rides like the plague.”
into the Birqash Camel Market that uncovered the abuse of camels used in the tourism industry generated international outrage, led to the arrests of three men, and prompted dozens of travel companies to announce that they would no longer promote animal rides at the pyramids of Giza. Yet, despite the backlash, the ministry hasn’t even made good on its meagre promise in 2022 to provide the animals with adequate shade.
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.au and follow the group on Facebook and Instagram.
Contact:
Sascha Camilli Media@peta.org.au
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