Roughly 200 wild horses disappeared in the Danube Delta, association says

Around 200 free-roaming horses in the Dranov area of the Danube Delta have disappeared in recent years, according to the Animal Rescue and Care Association (ARCA), a partner of Vier Pfoten International. The NGO is demanding a law to protect the animals.

“Horses have lived freely in the Dranov area for several years. Their number was around 400-500. There are around 200 or so now, counted three days ago,” ARCA president Kuki Bărbuceanu told Agerpres. He says that locals transport the wild horses to a slaughterhouse for money.

However, Bărbuceanu argues that there are no legal conditions for transporting animals by water in the Dranov area. “There is no barge or water transport authorized for horses. The vans in which they transport them are also not authorized for the transportation of any animal. […] The law says that untamed horses are not to be transported in numbers greater than four per transport. There were about 25 horses on the barge,” he says.

Bărbuceanu notified local officials but nothing has been done so far. The legal status of horses is unclear, and no one owns or administers them. He thinks a law is needed to establish the situation of animals raised in a state of freedom in the Delta. “This legislation must appear as soon as possible,” he said.

Representatives of the Sanitary-Veterinary and Food Safety Directorate (DSVSA) note that early this month they identified a transport of horses that was lacking the proper documents. Following the thread, the authorities found a farm with 61 animals for which the owner could not provide sanitary-veterinary documents. He was issued a RON 6,000 (EUR 1,216) fine.

Local authorities say that they’ve issued five fines for the illegal transportation of animals from the Delta in the last month.

“The massacre of wild horses in Tulcea has resumed, this time in the Dranov - Perișor (Murighiol) area. Everything seems to be happening with the support and complicity of the local authorities, to whom we have repeatedly appealed in the last month to do their duty, but without success,” ARCA said in a December 12 post on social media.

Veterinarians say that the Danube Delta is a hotbed of infectious equine anemia (EIA) and enzootic bovine leukosis (LEB), which is why animals here cannot be transported to other areas except under certain conditions. "The legislation stipulates that these animals can be taken directly to the slaughterhouse, with sanitary-veterinary documents. If they are sold to other horse owners from other areas, they must be subjected to blood tests. If they are positive, they can only go to the slaughterhouse, if not, they can be sold in 72 hours," stated the director of DSVSA, Mitică Tuchilă.