Austrian TV channel ORF airs feature on wild horses in Danube Delta

Newsroom 20/12/2011 | 16:24

A feature on the wild horses in Letea, the Danube Delta, was aired on Austrian television ORF.

The feature speaks about the importance of protecting and finding a solution for the horse population in the area, also touching upon the negative turn of events that sparked the anger of the population when a part of these horses were sent to the slaughterhouses by the Letea inhabitants to gain money for their meat. To learn more about this issue, read this article.

See the ORF feature at this link.

According to information from Vier Pfoten association project coordinator Kuki Barbuceanu, there are an estimate of 1,000 horses in the Letea forest region. The animals had been abandoned after the fall of communism, since before 1990, horses were massively used together with agricultural machinery for the increase of production. After 1990, consequential to the economical downfall of the area, the horses were released in the forest area and became semi-wild.

Representatives from the Letea protected area (a surface of 2,800 ha of the total 6,000 ha, where some of the horses found refuge) considered these animals to be damaging to the surrounding ecosystems and this is why the fate of the horses was uncertain.