UN INT Intro Text w/ Centered Large Responsive Image - *Important Note* You must UNLINK this shared library component before making page-specific customizations.
Weddings Shouldn't Involve Cruelty to Animals
Celebrating a couple's love by inflicting pain and suffering on animals doesn't make sense, but that's exactly what happens when couples use horses at their wedding ceremonies. Many handlers ram spiked bits – which the Prevention of Cruelty to Draught and Pack Animals Rules, 1965, clearly prohibit – into horses' mouths, causing lacerations, lesions, bleeding, and pain, in order to control the animals. Spiked bits inflict lasting damage, too: they can cause permanent injuries to a horse's mouth. Handlers also commonly beat horses into submission during training sessions prior to the events in order to force them to dance, perform, or endure crowds and loud noises.
Horses are very sensitive to noise , and wedding ceremonies are full of it. Excited crowds, firecrackers, and loud music bother these animals, who are extra-sensitive to high-frequency noises and can hear sounds that humans can't. Even though horses are often controlled by weapons, the auditory onslaught of weddings can be too much for them to bear and they often panic, which can lead to accidents. When they aren't being forced to endure the chaos of wedding ceremonies, they're often confined to filthy sheds full of biting flies that torment them. Their back legs are often constantly tethered, sometimes limiting their mobility so much that they can't turn around or even lie down comfortably.
There's also the risk that horses will pass glanders – a fatal, infectious zoonotic disease– to humans.