When a red horse harnessed to a Cinderella-style white carriage that carries tourists suddenly fell on the evening of Aug. 5 right in the center of Odesa, local residents thought the animal was dead.
It turned out that the horse only fainted, but witnesses said it was a clear case of animal abuse: the owners forced the animal to work the whole day under the searching sun with scorching temperatures of 37 degrees Celsius.
“The bastards sweat a horse. All for the tourist joy in Odesa,” Serge Kravetz, an Odessa resident, who witnessed the accident, wrote on Facebook, posting a photo and video evidence on Aug.5.
After it became clear what happened, the crowd hustled the carriage driver away and started reviving the horse, watering it and cooling it. Kravetz said that men in the crowd tried to help the horse to get up, but failed and then called the police.
The horse fell at 7 p.m., police arrived in about 20 minutes and at first refused to draw up a protocol.
“They didn’t see the act of crime in this animal abuse. But people persuaded them to change their mind,” Kravetz said.
On Aug. 1, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed int law stronger punishment for animal abuse. From now a person could face up to eight years in prison, instead of Hr 850 penalty and a six-month jail term as it was before.
The police also closed the road to let people and a veterinarian revive the animal. A couple of hours later the horse stood up.
The carriage and the horse belonged to the local Ayvengo Horse Club, an entertainment club that offers visitors horse rides.
The owner of the horse, Olga Oleynik, told the Kyiv Post on Aug. 6 that the horse feels better, denying that the incident was due to the animal’s maltreatment.
“The horse just slipped on the road, and couldn’t stand up because of stress caused by dozens of people that surrounded it. They were screaming, touching it and spilling water on it,” Oleynik said.
Oleynik was outraged by the fact that people, as she said, were aggressive, and didn’t let her take her horse home until 1 a.m.
“When a person feels sick, what she or he wants to do first? Go home and get some rest,” Oleynik said.
A video shows Odesa residents trying to reanimate a horse fainted from heat in the city center in the evening on Aug.5.
