26/05/2023

Scenes that could be from the Dark Ages in YouTube videos of this ridiculous event, organised every year in four municipalities: three in Molise and one in Apulia.

They are known as 'Carresi', and during these competitions three or four ox-drawn carts are raced, each surrounded by galloping horses ridden by individuals armed with prods to steer and drive the cattle.

In one of our previous articles we unmasked those, including religious and political leaders, who define these folkloristic events based on animal subjugation as “tradition”.

On 30 April this year a horse died in the “carrese” of San Martino in Pensilis (CB), but this did not make the news and the festival went on regardless: We don’t even know how the accident happened. We find it shameful that still today in Italy animals can be exploited during festivals and folk rituals of any kind, and that organisers and participantsgo unpunished even when animals actually die.

It is unacceptable that dozens of police officers, carabinieri and finance officials, as seen in the videos, pave the way for the carts and escort them with sirens blaring, and that police headquarters dares to boast about it. Officials and officers paid by us, the taxpayers, to set the tone for this sordid spectacle.