A statement from the citizens’ movement said it wanted to “teach” the Faro branch of the General Directorate for Food and Veterinary what a healthy horse should look like by taking one to the protest staged outside the DGAV’s regional headquarters in that city.
This was pledged in response to the DGAV’s comment regarding the Lagoa case, which has seen local livestock owner António Félix repeatedly accused of mistreating his animals.
Consecutively, over recent years, Felix has made headlines in local and national newspapers for the shockingly thin appearances that a number of his horses have had.
Lagoa council admitted complaints against the man and of what the citizens’ movement termed “notorious and shocking” neglect of his animals spanning over a decade, yet it seems little can be done by the local authority to remove them from his care.
Commenting on a situation, which again made the news earlier this year, the DGAV said it had “carried out several steps towards determining the condition of the animals belonging to Mr. António Félix Vieira, and found that, generally, they met with an adequate body condition, except for one mare which was feeding [a foal].”
“Clearly the representatives of the DGAV don’t know the meaning of an adequate body condition!” the movement retorted in its statement.
The citizens movement said it aimed to “demonstrate against the frequent breaches of animal welfare standards which have been seen in Lagoa” and would be taking “horses in good physical conditions” to the protest with them, “to demonstrate the differences between what they claim to be and that what actually is the appropriate body condition of a horse.”
In related news, over 4,300 people have signed a petition asking for authorities at the highest levels to take action against Félix and immediately remove the animals from him.
Meanwhile, locals in the Gambelas area of Faro last week also voiced their concern for a horse that appeared to have been abandoned on a piece of land next to the Algarve University. According to reports the horse was visibly neglected and had been left on the land tied with a rope for three days, exposed to the recent stormy elements with no shelter. Newspaper Correio da Manhã recalls that that latest case was one of a number of cases involving the mistreatment of horses in the Algarve.