The incident occurred at the Riding School of the Equestrian Society in Brazil.
According to La Vanguardia, teachers proposed for the children to paint one of the horses. The poor animal ended up painted all over its face and body by the colorful children’s strokes.
The incident came to the attention of NGO Order of Lawyers of Brazil (OAB), which shared the photo of the animal on their social networks, with a blunt comment:
“They had the brilliant idea of placing the horse as a painting canvas, saying it would be a pedagogical activity. They said it was a rescued horse, but that does not justify the cruelty,” member of the NGO Ana Paula Vasconcelos told the newspaper O Globo.
The riding school’s head of communication, Muriell Marques, said that the activity was not harmful to the animal nor to the children.
“The horse was calm, it was not stressed,” she added.
Following the incident, prosecutors of the Brazilian Institute of Environment (Ibama) visited the riding school to evaluate the animal. Now, authorities of the school must present the pedagogical plan that justified the initiative, as well as a veterinary evaluation of the horse, so that the Institute can give a verdict on the matter.
I imagine that the teachers had no intention of causing any harm to the horse, but even so it seems like a terrible idea! I hope those responsible will realize what they have done and not repeat something like this ever again. Children should not be learning to do things to animals just for ‘fun’ or entertainment!