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07. 09. 10. - 12:00

SRS faces animal cruelty claims

Vienna’s Spanish Riding School (SRS) bosses have been accused of animal cruelty after three horses suffered serious injuries at their countryside stables.

Local media reveal today (Tues) three young Lipizzaner stallions were injured after keepers reunited them with the herd in Piber, Styria, after spending one month at the SRS’s Viennese facilities.

Two studs sustained flesh wounds and bruises on their necks, while stallion "Maestoso Wanda" needed to undergo surgery on a broken leg.

Now the Freundeskreis der Spanischen Hofreitschule, a group of donors to the SRS, have reported the world-famous institution for animal cruelty.

One member of the group is quoted as saying: "The young studs should not have been reunited with the herd after being away for a month. Fights were likely to break out. It’s madness the animals weren’t separated."

Piber SRS stables chief Max Dobretsberger told newspaper Österreich: "We wanted the animals to have a good time at the alp, but we probably made a mistake in hindsight."

SRS vet Georg Hladik said it was unclear whether seriously injured stud "Maestoso Wanda" will ever be able to participate in one of the school’s popular shows again.

SRS boss Elisabeth Gürtler dismissed any animal cruelty accusations. She said: "It’s the most normal thing in the world that stallions fight. Horses suffer broken legs in enclosures all the time. There’s no connection to me."

SRS – which is subsidised with taxpayers’ money – made headlines earlier this year when it emerged that the institution suffered losses of 400,000 Euros in 2009.

Viennese newspapers reported two of the SRS’s chief equestrians suspended from work last year were still on full wages. Greens MP Wolfgang Zinggl warned: "The SRS will financially collapse in two years if this is true."

Gürtler refused to reveal how much the dismissed head riders earned. The former organiser of the State Opera Ball claimed "data protection reasons" prevented her from giving out this information.

Wealthy friends of the SRS spent 120,000 Euros on a revolutionary sand set to cause less strain to its famous Lipizzaner horses earlier this month.

The SRS head was forced to cancel several shows after 20 Lipizzaner horses developed an acute coughing infection in March.

Austrian Times

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