This is a cruel cat race organised in a backstreet by the community in which the terrified cats are forced to race.

Columbia cat race – cruelty and abuse. It is illegal in Columbia we are told.

I am not going to embed the video. I have not watched it. If you want to see it there is a link at the base of the page. Some time ago we agreed on this site to avoid, as best we can, images and video which showed cat cruelty because it is not a good thing to do for a range of reasons. If you want to know my reasons, please ask in a comment. The image on this page is a screen shot of the video before it plays. It is deliberately poor quality. The video was made by a passer-by, Manolo Cepeda, 35, who was suitable shocked.

The introduction out of the way, what is this about? Well, it appears to tell us that in some places in the world cat cruelty is not quite so obvious to the citizens of the country but there is always a percentage of people in any country who are sensitive to animal welfare, which applies to Columbia, where this episode took place.

This is an illegal backstreet sport involving what appears to be two community cats – semi-domestic cats.

Cats are forced to race against each other. The cats are shocked into racing by bursting a balloon in their faces. They are then compelled to keep racing by idiots who bang dustin lids (trash can lids) together to make a cacophony of noise. They are made to race in a straight line because they are tied to a person.

“The idea is that once the balloon has burst the cats will race each other to the end of the course….Of course they don’t as they are so terrified they just run where they can to escape. But the ropes around their necks are tied to the legs of the men racing them, so they can’t get away.” – the words of the video maker, Manolo Cepeda.

Fortunately Manolo handed his video to local animal rights group (fantastic that there are such groups there), Huella Animal and AnimaNaturalis.

Andreea Padilla of AnimaNaturalis says that they are issuing a complaint to the attorney general against the mayor, German Gomez, of the town where the ‘event’ took place: Tulua (see map – zoom in twice and Tulua shows up dead center on the map).

 
The mayor should know that this is animal cruelty and against the law in Columbia. It is good to know that the country has animal welfare laws and that there are at least attempts to enforce them. We don’t know if the mayor was prosecuted.

I hate to say this but I doubt that he will be prosecuted. I hope the animal rights organisation are okay. You never know what might happen to people who stick up for animals.

AnimaNaturalis are trying to find out who was involved in the cat cruelty. The police have been alerted. Let’s hope they do something. They have video evidence. There are no excuses.

Link to source article.