Despite the repeated protests that I sent and talked about before my departure to France, the so-called “štraparijada” events are still organized by animal torturers and are still approved by the Ministry of Agriculture of Una-Sana Canton. Barbarism has no limits in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The following is the text of the protest letter I sent a few days ago, before another performance of horse torture.

“To Whom It May Concern,

As a former World Animal Day Ambassador for BiH and a BiH citizen abroad, I am shocked by the reckless behavior of your Ministry of Agriculture and nonchalant attitude towards the violation of the Law on the Protection and Welfare of Animals of BiH, which not only characterizes the state of awareness in Una-Sana Canton and beyond, but also counts to the continuation of barbarism, which has been approved and encouraged in Izačić for years.

Year after year, the atavistic parade of animal torture, which the torturers and all of you, their supporters, affectionately call the “štraparijadas”, as the pride and pinnacle of animal torture, is the forcing of horses to drag heavy logs and other barbarities aimed at satisfying the base urges of those same. torturers and the torture of a hungry audience – which is a direct mockery and violation of Article 4 and other relevant articles of the Law on the Protection and Welfare of Animals of BiH (“Official Gazette of BiH”, No. 25/09). In this article, point ii) there is a special prohibition of forcing animals to behave in ways that cause them pain, suffering, injury and fear. Are you under the impression that hauling heavy logs is anything other than the action that is expressly prohibited? If so, it would be best if you harness yourself and start pulling the logs yourself, so that we can see who is the “strongest”. Similar competitions exist all over the world, eg the Highland Games in Scotland. They are highly rated on tourist lists and represent the return of tradition, but with participants who clearly and loudly give their consent to it. Unfortunately, when not games are organized, but torture parades are organized, such as carnivals, there are no participants, only victims. And when the victims are those whose voice, pain and suffering are cheerfully ignored, the aforementioned Law serves the Ministry of Agriculture and the entire Government only when the building’s toilet runs out of toilet paper.

I know that you will ignore this email as well as numerous previous ones, but you will not be able to wash your hands of the suffering caused to innocent living beings.

Speciesism as a type of discrimination is the basis for all other discriminations and evils in society and as long as there are institutions in that same society that issue approvals for organizing public torture, that society will never know a kind future. Instead of stepping forward from the barbaric shackles of the Balkans, Una-Sana Canton and Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole are plunging to medieval levels of consciousness, and you, as the culprits of that plunging, can only be ashamed.

May every tear, every whip and cry of innocent horses reach you as they are surrounded by sadistic psychopaths, whose torture is approved and sealed by your Ministry. Shame on you.”

Tomorrow, on Labor Day, many citizens of BiH and other countries will gather again and “celebrate” this day by devouring the corpses of babies impaled on stakes. Will we as a society ever end the suffering inflicted on other living, conscious beings and stop all kinds of barbarism?

/Izvor fotografije: Radio Sarajevo/