Frenchwoman takes out personal loan to rescue Malaga carriage horse – but two more face an uncertain fate
A BRAVE animal rights advocate has rescued one of Malaga’s last remaining carriage horses and prevented it from an otherwise uncertain fate.
Anne Blitz, from France, said she is ‘very excited’ but admitted that it was a ‘hard decision’ to spend a large sum of money in order to save the animal.
Her association, Burrito y Caballo Libre, has already secured two of the former carriage horses. One was purchased by her with the help of the group, and another by a friend.
READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: Malaga horse carriage owners ‘forced expat sanctuary to OUTBID slaughterhouses to save the animals’ – before sending them over ‘injured and skittish’
The pair are expected to arrive in the coming days at sanctuary, A Better Life 4 Horses, owned by Dane Signe Frossle, with Blitz covering the cost of their transport.
Anne’s new horse was one of more than 60 left without purpose after Malaga City Council summarily banned horse-drawn carriages last week.
Since the ban, sanctuaries have scrambled to rehome the animals. A coordinated rescue effort led by Frossle and Concordia, who runs Todos los Caballos del Mundo, has already secured 12.
Most of the animals have now found new homes, but two young horses remain unclaimed. Both are at a prime age of five years and come with what Frossle described as a ‘very expensive’ price tag of €6,000 for the pair.
The steep cost of the remaining horses has made it nearly impossible to secure their future, fuelling fears they could be sold to work in other cities such as Sevilla, where two former Malaga horses have already been sent to haul tourist carriages in the stifling heat.
READ MORE: Victory for campaigners as Malaga bans horse-drawn carriages – but what will happen to the animals?
Blitz is now appealing for help from the public to save the remaining two horses from a similar fate.
Her activism extends well beyond horses. The French campaigner has long fought for the welfare of Mijas’ working donkeys, organising protests and calling for boycotts of the town’s controversial ‘donkey taxi’ service, which has faced repeated accusations of animal abuse.
She wants the service replaced with other forms of transport and insists that ‘in this day and age, animal abuse cannot continue and we cannot accept it’.
For now, however, her focus is on the two remaining horses in Malaga whose futures still hang in the balance, as campaigners and sanctuaries race to raise enough funds before it is too late.
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