The celebrations of the St. George Festival are starting today in many places in the world.
On April 22nd, the second day of the St. George Festival, in Chieuti, Italy, a traditional –
oxen race is conducted between the town’s 4 districts. Each, races with a wagon weighing over 200kg, which is carried by two oxen for 3 miles, accompanied by a dozen "humane spurs" on horsebacks, from the countryside to the main streets.
The preparations begin months before the race, when the oxen and horses are trained for endurance and strength since oxen are not built to run at full speed for 3 miles, and all the more so, carrying such a heavy wagon. Already harnessed to the wagon, the oxen are taken to church to receive blessing before the race.
The race starts with the turning of the wagon and the run begins. There are two people on the wagon pulled by the two oxen and 12 to 15 men on horseback around it armed with poles topped with a metal tip that are used to prod the oxen to run faster.
In the end of this intensive and stressful race, which takes place in the heat of midday with constant beating by the riders and constant shouting by the crowd, the oxen are sore and hurt. They bleed from the nose because humans aggressively pull a ring attached to it before and during the race and they bleed from the hips because of all the spiking. The horses are also injured from this aggressive race and both are totally exhausted.
But all the stress, blood and pain is not in vain…
the winning district gets to carry the statue of St. George the next day, as well as 80 pounds of cheese!
This specific abuse, of this specific town, on this specific day, is part of a huge chain of animal tortures all over the world by hundreds of millions of humans in thousands of places, as you can see in the article
celebrating suffering.
Please stop trying to stop each of them and deal with how to stop it all. Forever.
