The recent video showing the completely inadequate treatment of a baby camel in the surroundings of Timanfaya National Park evidences the need to put an "end" to the animal rides that take place in this area, as the Franz Weber Foundation claimed this morning.
The images, recorded by a tourist and which have gone viral on social networks with hundreds of thousands of reproductions, generate a terrible image of Lanzarote because of a minority sector determined to continue exploiting mammals as a proposal for national and international tourism, the association reports.
Precisely FFW pointed out in 2021 the "important shortcomings" in the welfare of camels, with a "forceful" veterinary report that warned about "their living conditions, the long days of transport to which they are subjected and the incidents that occurred", he adds.
In addition, this document detailed excessive loads of people, dangerous pressure on the joints of dromedaries during transit, as well as the harmful use of wire muzzles or the absence of water. The conclusion was clear: "Important physical and behavioral problems in the dromedaries of Lanzarote, so the welfare of these animals should be considered deficient."
"We must work on alternative proposals in the recreational transport of tourists"
However, even as a result of the viral images, "no administration has taken note in three years", so the naturalists urgently ask the Cabildo and City Councils of the area to "work now on alternative proposals in the recreational transport of tourists", which "would involve a program to improve companies and labor guarantees that would enable a reconversion of the sector", they reveal.
The naturalists do not rule out issuing "a protest to the Ministry of Ecological Transition" for events that have been occurring, probably also away from the cameras, in a protected area, a National Park, where high standards of commitment to biodiversity, the environment and the animals themselves are supposed to exist, they conclude.
