12 referred to prosecutors over horse abuse in Japan shrine ritual

It's about time. Tradition should never justify cruelty in a civilised world.

Animal cruelty is widespread in Japan and takes many forms. From this gross example, to people keeping monkeys in their houses and dressing mutts up in ridiculous costumes. All for the pleasure of the selfish human.

Specially important is the last part of the article, modifying the rite to ensure the safety of the animals means it can still be held without any need to injure the horses, so it is not like a choice between having it with full risk or cancelling it completely.

dressing mutts up in ridiculous costumes.

As long as the pets are in no real discomfort this would not be abuse or cruelty, dogs can ignore completely their costumes and will not have a concept of it being ridiculous.

It's about time. Tradition should never justify cruelty in a civilised world.

Well said!

Animal cruelty is widespread in Japan and takes many forms. From this gross example, to people keeping monkeys in their houses and dressing mutts up in ridiculous costumes. All for the pleasure of the selfish human.

Or the SOB who tortured hamsters up in Hokkaido by throwing them in Snow or filming them being live fed. Makes my blood boil as a former owner of a beautiful Syrian Hamster who sadly passed away in June.

But let's not kid ourselves. 2 of the biggest culprits of Animal Abuse are YouTube and Facebook- which allow such heinous videos to be uploaded without consequences

dressing mutts up in ridiculous costumes

agree, the poor little dog are not made for any costumes

Is this news because it is animal abuse, which is not at all unusual in Japan, or because the police actually took some action against animal abuse, which is extremely unusual in Japan?

One area where Japan still has a long way to go when compared to some other countries. Good to see that they're at least trying, at least in this case.

And shame on those visitors who hit the horses as they run past. The number of people reaching out to slap or hit the horses was disgraceful. Who could possibly derive pleasure from that?

My guess is that the accused will not be prosecuted, and nothing will come of this from a criminal standpoint.

However, it will most likely lead to changes in the way animals are treated at this particular "ritual", hopefully trickling down to other animal-related events.

I've been to that event. It's no crueler than steeplechase or horse racing. I'd also like to know just what groups complained. Anon accusers are automatically suspect.

garypenToday  10:40 am JST

My guess is that the accused will not be prosecuted, and nothing will come of this from a criminal standpoint.

I agree, I don't think this criminal complaint against 12 people concerning 4 horses within 10 years will be successful, as it also has to be taken into consideration that the ritual has been changed already to prevent injuries of these horses in future.

I've been to that event. It's no crueler than steeplechase or horse racing.

A quick search gives 2.4 to 5.2 horses dying for every 1000 starts in horse race and steeplechase respectively,

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10931299/

For this festival 6 horses run 3 times every year so 18 runs in total, in 10 years that would be 180 races, in which 4 horses died. That would give a rate of 22.2 equine deaths for every 1000 starts, this is 4 to almost 10 times crueler.

I was there by chance.

Id had been hiking the mountain behind the temple when I came across the festival.

It was barbaric.

There was no way horses would make it over the last jump which was a sunbaked dirt wall.

Riders got thrown, horses hit the wall at full speed and were whipped or dragged over the wall.

On top of that and I've been to tons of Japanese festivals, the people organizing the horse teams were seriously drunk and menacing drunk.

They would barge into people watching and shout at them.

The whole experience was really really horrible.

For all those who might have some confusion about it, cruelty is wrong wherever it is found. It could be amateur shooters maiming the wildlife, or fishermen maiming fish, or idiots on horses chasing foxes. It's all cruel. If you cannot have a sense of the cruel and its opposite - compassion - it is hard to imagine you could have any sense of peace. I guess that is why real Buddhists and Jains don't kill and they limit harm.

At best, if it goes to trial, they will get suspended sentences and nothing will change.

Obviously no one has seen the abuse done to the draft horses at Hokkaido's Obihiro Racetrack. They even post the races on youtube with draft horses made to pull 1000kg sleds over sand hills. Most of the horses can't finish the race and resort to laying down from exhaustion or breaking legs trying too hard. What more is the jerking on the horses mouths to inflict pain and trying to get the horse too scared to stop as well as the jockeys flogging these gentle giants with the reins repeatably hoping they can find the strength to get some momentum going to pull the 1T sled. How PETA can turn a blind eye is anyone's guess. It's not racing, it's a barbaric tradition that needs to be banned. The younger horse trail race to make it to the big time has a fatality rate of over 50% which isn't broadcasted on youtube but open to the public. When these beautiful horse fall down and can't get up the jockeys normally get off and kick them in the head out of frustration.

＠Yamada Taro That sounds horrific! Let's hope the above animal welfare organizations will target that next!

@virusrex Steeplechase is also barbaric!!! At the Grand National, 41 horse deaths occurred between 2000 and 2012.

dressing mutts up in ridiculous costumes.

As long as the dog is in no pain, this is much better than being tied up outside to a short chain for 12 months a year.