We feel like we need to say something about why we’re publishing these photographs. There are a couple of reasons and to be honest, one of them is “Holy shit, what’s happening in these just looks insane and amazing and disgustingly fascinating.” But then again, we are not Bizarre magazine and we don’t want to publish photos of animals in pain just for the hell of it. Quite the conundrum.
Luckily, the people who took these pictures did so while they were undercover in the world of illegal Filipino horse fighting. They were documenting it for an animal rights charity called Network for Animals. So we’re able not only to show you these photographs, which hold more morbid curiosity than 100 car wrecks around which flaming people are running in circles, but also to tell you that you need to go to networkforanimals.org and make a donation, however small, to shut these horse-torturing motherfuckers down. And don’t nobody try and give us the “It’s another culture, diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks” line. Horse torture is horse torture regardless of how near or far the equator is from you.
OK, enough rationalizing. Besides, we’re not even showing you the worst ones. Anyway, here we go…
A few months ago my wife and I went down to the Philippines to document three days of horse fighting for the animal rights charity organization Network for Animals. There are currently over 1,000 horses bred for fighting in the Philippines. Bets at amateur fights can range from 500 to 5,000 pesos, and bets at larger fights can get up to 150,000 pesos. And yes, sure, there is a law against horse fighting. But have you looked up
corrupt in the dictionary lately? Try it. There’s a just a big block of text that says FILIPINO POLITICIANS where there used to be a definition (and the fine for horse fighting starts at a measly 20 American dollars). Professional horse derbies last two to three days, are televised on local sports networks, and are sponsored by the biggest brewing company in the Philippines, which, over here, would be like having the Budwiser Dog Fighting Championships on ESPN.
A big question of ours going into this investigation was: How do they get the horses to fight? The answer, of course, is horse vagina. A mare in heat is tied to the middle of the ring in between two bamboo shafts. The female stays in the ring throughout the day in the sweltering heat. She is never moved, never given any water. They bring one stallion to the female and he gets aroused. Sometimes he jumps on her and rapes her. They either try to stop it or they just let it happen. Sometimes the mare and the horse fight each other as she tries to protect herself.
TO BE CONTINUED
HORSE FIGHTS |
1 |
2 |
