WAG NY HORSES THE FORGOTTEN HEROS

Forgotten Heroes: A million horses were sent to fight in the Great War – only 62,000 came back

00:44am 9th November 2007

 

A great horse rears amid the flash and boom of bombardment; careers in terror from the path of an advancing tank; struggles to free itself from treacherous swirls of barbed wire.Here are images of man’s exploitation of animals carried to bloody extremity amid the horrors of World War I.

It was bold to set out to depict such scenes on a London stage. But the National Theatre is enjoying a triumph with its production of Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse, the story of Joey, beloved mount of a Devon farmer’s son, translated into a beast of battle and burden in France.

This is a children’s story in the tradition of Black Beauty, which makes adults sob, too.

The actors play their parts well, but the stars are the horses, larger-than-life wicker creations, modelled with conviction by the Handspring Puppet Company.

The puppeteers and directors Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris have studied and captured every equine movement and gesture.

Each horse has its own personality, cavorting with balletic grace. The performance, more pantomie than play, displays the spirit of one of the great tragedies of history.

Few pictures show the suffering horses went through in the war

We know that World War I killed some ten million fighting men, almost 800,000 of them British.

Much less known is the fate of a million hapless horses, sent to France between 1914 and 1918. Only 62,000 returned. War Horse offers a glimpse of the experiences that befell them.

Man has been exploiting animals for centuries. But there is a pathos about the plight of horses conscripted to suffer in conflicts which they, unlike their riders, lack any means of understanding.

Many paintings depict warriors charging into battle with swords held high, wild-eyed mounts stretching out their necks as they surge full-tilt towards the enemy.

Yet few pictures show the consequences: battlefields on which abandoned, maimed, eviscerated animals wander in agony and bewilderment, lacking even a kindly bullet to free them from their misery.

Generals list their losses in men and guns. Few have ever troubled to mention the horses which perished in the service of their victories.

One of the few who did notice was 19th-century surgeon Sir Astley Cooper.

After Wellington’s triumph at Waterloo in 1815, the wounded horses of the Household Cavalry were sold at auction in Belgium.

Sir Astley bought 12 of the worst cases and had them shipped to England.

There, he devoted months to their care, removing bullets and sewing up sword slashes. Afterwards, at his country park, he loved to watch the great beasts form in line, charge and gallop at their own pleasure.

Few of the horses of World War I were so rewarded. In their thousands, they were borne away to France and Flanders, cast into shells, wire and mud, where they suffered wounds and death alongside the men who rode and drove them.

In the first months of the war, cavalry sometimes attempted charges in the old fashion, which ended in catastrophe in the face of machine-guns.

Throughout the years of stalemate which followed on the Western Front, horses pulled guns, ration carts and ambulances by day and night, often in terrible conditions.

Captain Julian Grenfell, who died on the battlefield, wrote pityingly in the spring of 1915 of a soldier’s apprehension before “going over the top”: “In dreary, doubtful, waiting hours, Before the brazen frenzy starts, The horses show him nobler powers; O patient eyes, courageous hearts!”

Some cavalrymen in France, however, were much less sympathetic to their mounts. “The horse”, complained Lt Alan Lascelles of the Bedfordshire Yeomanry, “though a noble animal, is a … tiresome companion … when you start touring the country with him.

“He debars you from spending the night anywhere in the neighbourhood of civilisation because he takes up so much room.

He is unable to clean or feed himself, and will leave you altogether unless firmly secured; he drags you miles through mud that he has churned up with his feet and then refuses to drink at the end of it.

“He wears a mass of impedimenta with an unlimited capacity for getting dirty and unserviceable; he will bite and kick you on the smallest provocation.

“Though he is all very well in peacetime, I am beginning to think that the day when he is declared obsolete for war purposes will be a bright one for the human race.”

Ungrateful man! His horse never sought its role in the most terrible conflict in human history. The British Army shipped nearly six-million tonnes of fodder across the Channel during the war – slightly more than the weight of ammunition dispatched – but there was never enough.

Lest we forget: Generals list the soldiers that were killed in battle. Few have ever troubled to mention the horses which perished in the service of their victories

When corn ran short, animals suffered from emaciation. Thousands were left lame by nails and blades on the battlefield.

Between the Somme in July 1916 and the Armistice in November 1918, the British Army recorded 58,090 horses killed and 77,410 wounded by gunfire; 211 were killed and 2,220 wounded by poison gas; while several hundred were killed by aeroplane bombs.

As the carnage grew, British stables could no longer supply the Army’s needs, as many horses were needed at home for farms and transport.

Animals were bought in Canada and the U.S., to be shipped across the Atlantic.

Many of the horses and ponies which served with Allenby’s army, fighting the Turks in Palestine, came from Australia. Australian cavalry took part in some of the last traditional charges in history, during the advance on Jerusalem in 1917.

Many soldiers who found themselves tending and riding horses lacked experience.

The great-grandfather of Tom Morris, co-director of the National Theatre’s War Horse, sent a long letter to his own son, off to war in 1914, explaining the care of his mount:

“When campaigning,” wrote farm manager Matthew Parrington, “there are lots of little things you can do with horses which may save you a lot of trouble and a lot of danger.

“First, about food: you will have that all in your instructions, but [you should give him] 15lb good oats and about ten to 12lb of clean hay or other bulky food per day.

“Also, when you get the chance, give a few beetroot or other roots cut up in their corn. Carrots are the best.

“A horse should be fed three times a day but you must feed when you can, water as often as possible but never just before fast work.

“When you off-saddle at night let them drink as much as they like before food when they come in tired.”

Parrington, a Devon man, gave pages of advice on the care of horses, a lore he knew well. Most wartime soldiers did not.

They overloaded their mounts, neglected saddle sores, lamed beasts by carelessness, caused them colic by misfeeding. And all before they got to work, dispatching cavalry, artillery and supply columns into the path of shot and shell.

Here, now, is Morpurgo in his best-selling book from which the stage production of War Horse is adapted, describing the experience of battle by his horse-hero, Joey: “‘Wire’, I heard Trooper Warren whisper. ‘Oh God, Joey, they said the wire would be gone, they said the guns would deal with the wire. Oh my God.’

“We were into a canter now and still there was no sound nor sight of any enemy. The troopers were shouting at an invisible foe, leaning over their horses’ necks, sabres stretched out in front of them.

“I galvanised myself into a gallop to keep up with Topthorn, and as I did so, the first terrible shells fell among us, and the machine-guns opened up.

“All around me men cried and fell to the ground, horses reared and screamed in an agony of fear and pain. The ground erupted on either side of me, throwing horses and riders clear into the air.”

I won’t spoil the story by revealing its end.

Here, instead, is a real-life account of the 7th Dragoon Guards charging during the Battle of the Somme on 14 July 1916, as seen by a British gunnery officer: ‘An incredible sight, an unbelievable sight.

They galloped up with their lances and pennants flying.

“They were falling all the way, as the German guns played on the infantry. They simply galloped on through all that, horses and men dropping with no hope against the machine-guns. It was a magnificent sight. Tragic.”

Amazingly, that morning a few horsemen reached the German lines, and impaled several of the enemy on their lances.

But then machine-guns got to work on the horses once more. Soon, the few survivors of the 7th Dragoons were trickling back to the British lines.

It was madness that such things happened, during a 20th-century war in which every sensible soldier recognised that horsed cavalry were doomed.

But happen they did, creating the legend which has inspired War Horse. When the war ended in November 1918, few horses returned to Britain. Most were sold, ending their careers on French dinner tables.

The same happened again in World War II. In 1939, the rural part-time soldiers of the Yeomanry regiments were shipped from Britain to the Middle East with their horses.

In 1942, when the Yeomanry were put into tanks, the animals became redundant. They were auctioned in Palestine and Egypt.

In 1945, with British sentimentality a charity was established in Cairo named the Brooke Hospital, to save horses from the worst cruelties of local life.

The Brooke survives today, a tribute to our nation’s feelings about its animals, even after treating them so badly in the service of war.

War Horse is a worthy memorial to the animal victims of the 20th century’s great global cataclysms. The horses are its stars, taking more curtain calls than the human actors.

If you see it, don’t be fooled by the fact it was written for children. However old and cynical you think you are, be sure to take plenty of hankies

WAG NY OLYMPIC GAMES IN BEIJING CHINA? A DEJA VU?

ATHENS 2004“Not the Greatest Celebration on Earth”(By Marijo Anne Gillis)                     

I peered out the window of the giant airbus as the powerful Olympic Airlines jet screeched to an abrupt halt. It was 10:30 am and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Elefterios Venezelou Airport was eerily quiet.

 In early summer Athens is usually a frenetic hub of activity. Tourists from all over the world flock to the Cradle of Western Civilization for fun in the sun and trips to the majestic monuments of a once exemplary civilization. 

My history and love affair with Greece spans 30 years, back to the military junta and  my early college days. I lived in Greece for 14 years while married and ran a lucrative yacht chartering business. I like to believe that over the years I became somewhat of an expert on Greek cultural and social mores. 

Modern day Greece pales in comparison to the mighty imprint she relinquished so many millennia ago. She is but a faint shadow and a dim memory of her ancient and glorious past. She has devolved into a disabled offspring of colossal greatness. 

I disembarked, cleared customs, said a prayer to the Lord for strength, and began a sad journey into the desperate, despairing world of the animals of Greece. Unwanted, abandoned and brutalized, the fate of these creatures, both companion and farmed are tenuous at best; especially in light of the 2004Olympic Games. 

I have made three investigative trips to Greece in the last nine months and have filmed and photographed the innocent victims of abuse, neglect and disease in horrifying municipal shelters, parks, back alleys, farms and even private homes. 

 Fear, loneliness, starvation, brutality, pain, and death are not just vocabulary for the companion and farmed animals in Greece, but living expressions of reality. 

Low cost spay/neuter programs do not exist. Greeks believe that animals deserve a sex life. Sadly some Greek veterinarians are more concerned with profits from all too often botched spay/neuters which they perform reluctantly than with the hideous conditions of the animals they were trained to help. 

 “Voluntary” vets from around the world have been denied access to practice in Greece lest they curb the inflow of bucks to the home grown variety.   Greeks proudly state that they do not practice euthanasia yet ironically mass poisoning is their barbaric form of animal population control. 

 Death sneaks upon the animals furtively and is slow and brutally agonizing.

Wanton propagation in wretched municipal shelters where animals are trapped in perpetual misery diseased and starving results in new born puppies being cannibalized by animals struggling for survival. These grisly scenes have been captured on video. 

Mans dominion over animals – an appointment by God, has apparently been stripped of mercy, compassion and humanity. 

Over the past year my meetings and negotiations with Greek ministers, mayors, and officials of the 2004 Athens Olympic Committee have produced promises to raise the standard of animal welfare and embrace social responsibility especially in light of the Games.

Unfortunately for the animal victims their promises are empty and rhetoric is meaningless. Graphic reports of animal abuse in the daily papers and on TV do little to mobilize a humane response by citizens.

Government generated press releases deny allegations of slaughter and criminal abuse and are little more than slick smokescreens meant to mislead probing journalists and the conscientious world. 

My investigations over the past two years, clearly point to a well planned, systematic house cleaning campaign. Allegedly orchestrated by Greek officials in cooperation with the 2004 Athens Olympic Committee, “gentrification” of the streets in time for the onslaught of tourists to the summer games has resulted in a massacre.

Reports from Greece indicate that the animals are not the only ones who are disappearing and taking the “ proverbial bullet “ for greed and inhumanity. Several Greek TV viewers state that a late night news report indicates that allegedly homeless gypsies and other undesirables will be spirited off to mysterious venues for the duration of the games.  Perhaps to an island spa?   I shiver as I déjà vu Gestapo tactics. 

While in Athens I brought provocative expose material including facts, photographs and film to the attention of a very powerful television journalist Makis Triantafylopoulos.  His programs “Yellow Press” and “Jungle” air twice weekly on Alter TV, a major network. 

 Both broadcasts vie for the number onespot in the ratings. He is feared for his relentless inquisitions and cunning reportage on corruption and abuse and he wreaks havoc on the humanpollution of Greek society. He travels with a body guard and threats upon his life are taken seriously.

I like him very much.  He is a gentle and compassionate man and is hell bent on securing justice for the proverbial under dog.  Many years ago Mr.Triantafylopoulos’ award winning expose on Greece’s hideous and macabre mental hospitals reached the television audiences of one of America’s most credible and popular documentary programs and shocked the nation. I am grateful for this journalists trust in WAG’s campaign for the animals of Greece.

He gave to me, Athens attorney Amalia Katsoula and South African activist Angela Fleming the opportunity to participate in a live one hour program called Yellow Press. A well known panel of guests including government officials and people from the entertainment and publishing world were invited to express their views.

I hope that we ignited an un-extinguishable “torch”.  On the air, Mr. Triantafylopoulos promised to me and his millions of viewers to thoroughly investigate allegations of mass exterminations and the disappearance of countless animals. Hopefully he will keep his promise. 

After my rabble rousing visit to Greece in June of 2003 at the invitation of the Greek government, Athens Olympic Committee director, billionaire Gianna Angelopoulou-Daskalaki  held a major press conference and promised financial aid for the welfare of abandoned animals affected by the infrastructure for the games. 

 I am curious to learn the whereabouts of the millions of euros that she promised for the animals. Has someone opened a Swiss bank account?  Who has the money in their deep pockets? 

Indulgences for the Olympic Games, expenditures will indeed have dramatic consequences for Greek citizens, idle in the billions of dollars and are dramatically over budget.

 Thankfully the international animal welfare community has called for an active united BOYCOTT of Greece and this action will undoubtedly impact an already compromised economy. Oblivious to all but the glory of the Games the 2004 Athens Olympic Committee turns a blind eye to financial disaster as well as to the grim animal issue whichscreams for a humane solution. 

 Forever lobbying and pressuring officials, I arranged a formal meeting with Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Alexandros Kontos, the minister’s counsel, animal advocates and  three  brilliant Athens attorneys Amalia Katsoula, Elias Pavlakis and Vasilis Alavanos who are working together pro bono to effect justice for animals and defamed animal advocates.

Prior to this meeting the Ministry refused communication with the animal welfare community. I am happy to report that this dialogue between people and state continues.  Another meeting ( attorneys in tow) with the Vice Mayor of Athens, Tonia Kannelopoulou who is charged with animal welfare in the Olympic host city was  extremely cordial. Once again the vice mayor made promises for reform that I hope she will keep.

However, their rejection of assistance from foreign animal welfare organizations is not wise. The Athens municipality’s primitive yet well intentioned actions have yet to prove the verity of political oratory. WAG and the heaven sent Angela Fleming, general secretary of Athens Frontida Zoon (Caring for the Animals) physically rescued several very ill,abused young dogs from the garbage dump at Loutraki,  a wealthy seaside resort some 80 kilometers from Athens. Loutrakis claim to fame is a populargambling casino. 

 Infamous is the town dump which doubles as Loutrakis municipal animal shelter.  It is despicable as are the indifferent officialsof the town, (partners in the casino). Words cannot describe the condition of the animals. At this momentI find that I cannot find the strength todescribe the misery, pain and desolation that I witnessed. 

A happy ending for these rescued creatures, is that WAG has provided veterinary treatmentfor the rescued dogs, (two were 3 week old puppies discarded as rubbish ) and foster care with loving families.  They are presently being medicated,loved, spoiled, fattened up and are awaiting a mercy airlift and re-homing in Belgium. 

 But, what about the tens of thousand left behind?

 During my 17 day stay in Greece, I had daily meetings with animal rights activists and phone conferences with these wonderful people nation wide;the only members of Greek society who seem to care about her tormented animals. Sadly these human bastions of animal rights continue to be ridiculed,slandered,  intimidated and marginalized by citizens and government officials alike, and some of their actions appear to be governedby fear.

 The pathetic Greek e-zine, Tetrapodologein has made a vicious mockery of their compassion. Happily on June 6, 2004 the Greek Parliament played involuntary host to a boisterous and passionate street demonstration. Gathering courage, over 1000 angry animal activists took to the streets with banners and loudspeakers and protested the mass poisoning of thousands ofdogs and cats and the government and the 2004 Athens Olympic Committees alleged reckless complicity in the disappearance of the countries strays. 

Even better news is the fact that the European media is covering Greece’s little shop of horrors with vitality and serious intent.

As well, WAG hasjust completed production on a 5 minute narrated documentary film called The Glory of Greece. The film details brutal animal abuse and WAG will distribute the visual images to major media outlets throughout North America and Western Europe.

A major American network has expressed interest in the expose. Adverse publicity will certainly impact the influx of Greece’s tourist dollars. 

 Money is something that the Greek nations governing force comprehends. Perhaps the slowed ching of that damn Greek cash register god may catalyze positive action. 

As the Olympic games draw near much is being questioned about vita security in defense of global terrorism and construction delays of thecity’s infrastructure are foremost concerns. The Greek government blithely reassures the media and turns it’s arrogant attention to putting their cityin the best possible light. 

As the world lobbies for assurances that the 2004 Athens Olympic Games will be a safe and successful pageant, the needless and barbaric slaughter of heranimals continues. 

The world is perplexed and somewhat stunned by this Greece’s resistance to compassion. 

As Greece assumes center stage, let us remember and never forget that athletes from around the world will exercise their prowess upon the bloodstains of the thousands of voiceless, vulnerable victims of greed and inhumanity.

This will surely outrage the millions of people who cherishtheir animals and the creatures with whom we share this planet. Alluring TV commercials and crafty print advertising, artfully displayed, proclaim that the 2004 Athens Olympics will “unite the world”. 

A full page ad in a New York City newspaper, presented by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, states:  

 At the dawn of the third millennium, more than 2,700 years after the first Olympic Games, history will repeat itself as the Olympics return to the country of their birth.  The Greek nation and the whole world will embracethe unique revival of the games, turning them into “the greatest celebration on earth”. 

Knowing what we know, this image strains credulity. And so dear readers Greece continues to rape her own image with social irresponsibility and moral bankruptcy. 

The 2004 Athens Olympic Games will hoist a bright torchlight over the failures of Greek society and civic institutions to live up to their obligations to meet the most basic, simpleneeds of animals.

 Welcome to the 2004 Athens Olympic Games as GREEK ANIMALS RACE for their LIVES! 

WAG NY THE SHAME OF THE OLYMPICS

A Lesson on Protest From the 1980 Olympics
by Michael A. Kroll
Published on Tuesday, April 1, 2008 by The San Francisco Chronicle

The hoopla in San Francisco surrounding the forthcoming Olympic torch runner and the promised demonstrations focused on China’s human rights abuses reminded me of an earlier Olympic protest against human rights abuses – except those abuses were far closer to home.

In 1980, the Winter Olympics were held in Lake Placid, N.Y. As the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) contemplated housing the large number of athletes, they went to Congress asking for federal money to build temporary quarters. Congress responded that the federal government was not in the business of providing public money for private enterprises, and advised that if the committee could suggest a permanent public after-use, then the money might be forthcoming.

In record time – working closely with the Federal Bureau of Prisons – the USOC came up with their suggested “public” after-use: a new federal prison. Without the congressional oversight that had always been required for such a massive project, Congress appropriated the money, borrowed a blueprint from an existing federal prison complex, clear-cut a large swath of forest between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake, and construction began.

At that time, I coordinated a project from Washington, D.C ,called the National Moratorium on Prison Construction. Along with affiliate groups, we launched a campaign to focus attention on the inhumanity of using U.S. tax dollars to pay for a temporary “Olympic Village” – complete with discothèque, movie theater, fancy food services and many other amenities – for the 1,100, mostly white, European athletes, which later would become a permanent prison complex of young, mostly black and Latino men from the urban centers of New York City and Philadelphia.

We called our campaign Stop The Olympic Prison (S.T.O.P.), and we designed a poster showing a black arm thrust through the Olympic rings under the slogan, Stop The Olympic Prison ( www.docspopuli.org/articles/STOP/STOP.html ).

Soon, we received a letter from the USOC threatening to sue us for copyright infringement. Instead, we sued the USOC for an anticipatory breach” of our First Amendment rights. Just before the Games began, a federal judge ruled in our favor, noting that there was little likelihood of anyone confusing our poster with the corporate goals of the Olympic Committee.

But then came the Olympic torch run through the streets of Washington and onto the steps of the U.S. Capitol. On the morning of that Senate-sponsored welcoming ceremony (to which the public had been invited), I arrived with a banner: “Olympic Torch = Freedom, Olympic Prison = Slavery.” I stood at the back of the crowd so as not to obstruct anyone’s view, and raised the banner.

Soon, a Capitol Hill Police captain approached and inquired if I had a permit to demonstrate. I answered that I did not, but asked if the many others in the crowd with signs welcoming the torch runner had permits. The captain told me they did not, but that my sign was “not in the spirit of the ceremony,” and ordered me to put it down.

I replied that I believed the First Amendment protected my speech, and that if he arrested me, I would sue. Again, he ordered me to relinquish the banner. Again, I refused. Two other officers then arrested me. I was released some hours after the ceremony ended, and the charges were dropped. I sued.

While our campaign to Stop The Olympic Prison was unsuccessful (today, more than 1,200 young men are incarcerated there), my lawsuit succeeded. The result may be instructive both for those contemplating how they might express their opposition to the upcoming Olympic Games in China, and for the government that hopes to impose “time, place and manner” restrictions on such demonstrations. In a word, what my case determined is that where there is “no obstruction of pedestrian or vehicular traffic” by a single demonstrator (who does) “not threaten or provoke violence,” there is no right to impose the kinds of restrictions allowed on larger, organized gatherings.

San Francisco officials might also want to consider this from the court’s decision: “Freedom of expression would not truly exist if the right could be exercised only in an area that a benevolent government has provided as a safe haven for crackpots.” (That would be me…) (W)e do not confine the permissible exercise of First Amendment rights to a telephone booth or the four corners of a pamphlet…”

A word to the wise…

New America Media contributor Michael A. Kroll is the founding director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

© 2008 Hearst Communications Inc.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/01/8026/