Mistreated animals abroad

As a charity dedicated to the health and welfare of working animals in developing countries, holidaymakers often turn to us to find and treat the animals they have seen being mistreated. Unfortunately it is rarely that simple. Many holidaymakers do not know where exactly they saw the abuse; we’re often told an animal is somewhere on a 100-mile stretch of road, or they write to tell us about animals being mistreated in countries such as Spain or Greece where we do not operate.

We know that veterinary nurses also hear horror stories from clients who have seen animals mistreated on holiday and have not known how or whether to intervene. We were recently contacted by a veterinary nurse who was so upset about seeing dehydrated horses being used to pull tourist carriages in Majorca, that she decided not to leave her resort again.

Experiences like this are far too commonplace, and so this year we commissioned a YouGov* survey of British adults’ experiences of seeing animal mistreatment abroad. We wanted to gather evidence of just how widespread the problem is and begin to develop a programme to help empower holidaymakers to act.