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Heads-Up: How To Make Horse-Friendly Choices in Egypt
And one key site to avoid.
“I’ll give you another $200,” said the Egyptian tour guide to the horse cart drivers at Edfu. “But on a condition: you don’t whip the horses.”
The situation at the Temple of Horus in Edfu in is unique in two ways. One, the local carriage drivers have mafia-style monopolised the route from the cruise ships to the temple. This means tourists’ only option is to ride ‘hantoor’ (horse and cart). Two, the cart horses are consistently mistreated.
“I’ve tried to work with them, believe me,” the guide explained to us. We had remained on the Nile River cruise boat while other tour groups left to visit the Edfu temple. “But I had no choice in the end.”
Ever since his failed bargain with the hantoor driver, the guide and his tour company have refused to make Edfu a destination in their Egypt tours. The guide started a Facebook campaign and now several other tour companies also avoid the temple site. But does it make any difference to the horses? Hold that thought.
We Don’t Have to Ban the Hantoor
It’s true that hantoors are a traditional part of Egyptian culture and make many locals’ livelihoods. A look at the streets of major Egyptian cities will show you hantoor carts pulling tourists among the traffic. But while some of the horses are well-fed and gently driven, many are whipped, overloaded, or skinny.
Who would want to ride behind a horse whose ribs are showing and who is half the size of its cart? What about experiencing a ten-year-old kid thrashing an animal as a matter of course? Yet in Egypt I saw tourists choosing to do this for transport or just as an activity.
Like my tour guide, many Egyptians are concerned for horse and camel welfare and urge harsher penalties for their mistreatment. But the issue is bigger than the lack of animal welfare laws: the truth is, not enough tourists care.
