Rapa das bestas Spain 2019

Spain is not a country any of us at The Horse Fund would spend vacation time or money on.

Spain retains a core savagery that is unsettling and disgraceful. Spaniards revel in holding on to their gory, barbaric and outdated customs and festivals, many of which involve the horrific treatment of animals. Horses are too often one of those animals.

RAPA DAS BESTAS

“Every year, wild horses are captured in the hills of Spain and then taken to a farmyard where they are branded and their horsehair cut during a traditional festival known as ‘Rapa das Bestas’ or The Capture of the Beasts, ” reports The Straits Times, from which we corralled the following series of images.

Villagers round up wild horses in Sabucedo, some 40km from Santiago de Compostela, northwestern Spain, on July 6, 2019. PHOTO: AFP

Hundreds of people watch the traditional Rapa das Bestas in Sabucedo, Galicia, Spain, on July 7, 2019. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

A man takes part in the traditional Rapa das Bestas festival in Sabucedo, Galicia, Spain, on July 7, 2019. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

Wild horses fight during the 400-year-old Rapa das Bestas traditional event in the village of Sabucedo, some 40km from Santiago de Compostela, northwestern Spain, on July 6, 2019. PHOTO: AFP

Men try to ride wild horses during the traditional event Rapa das Bestas, which takes place on the first weekend of July for four days, on July 7, 2019. PHOTO: EUROPA PRESS

Some aloitadores struggle with a wild horse in the curro during the Rapa das Bestas traditional event in the Spanish northwestern village of Sabucedo, some 40km from Santiago de Compostela, northwestern Spain, on July 6, 2019. PHOTO: AFP

As disgusting as this is, is it any worse than what “we” do to horses in the U.S., Canada or Mexico? The Rapa Das Bestas lasts for a period of 4 days, once a year every year. It’s hard to look at the images of this festival, but can we say we treat our horses much better, especially our own wild horses?

AMERICAN MUSTANGS

No one in the U.S. government in particular seems to take into consideration how mentally as well as physically cruel the Bureau of Land Management roundups of “America’s” wild horses are — destroying their bands, tearing them away from the only habitat they have ever known, cramming them into claustrophobic transport, then forcing them to live unnaturally in captivity, never to have a hint of or enjoy their precious freedoms again.

As you wild horse lovers know, this is the only the beginning of the sorrow American Mustangs must endure, thousands of which at one point or another will be taken away and brutally slaughtered to satisfy the tastes of overseas diners.

HORSE MEAT

Speaking of horse meat, do Spaniards slaughter horses?

Horse meat is not generally eaten in Spain, except in the north, but the country exports horses both as live animals and as slaughtered meat for the French and Italian markets.

CAPULLOS

We thought maybe, just maybe, the Rapa Das Bestas horses might have gotten way with some horrific manhandling and a hair cut, but it doesn’t look that way.

British actor and comedian Ricky Gervais tweeted how disgusting Rapa das bestas is. One replied to him: “Never wanted to see someone’s teeth kicked in so bad in my life.”

Capullos.