Will you help them walk again?

Sigit’s Story

For carriage horses like Sigit, pictured to the right, working life in hot, humid and hectic Jakarta is unimaginably tough. For up to 16 hours a day, 10-year-old Sigit pulls a heavy cart for his owner Farel. As he works, the nails in Sigit’s makeshift shoes cut into him. The ill-fitted shoes leave his feet exposed to the impact of the bumpy Jakartan roads. Without proper shoes and farriery care, Sigit’s feet aren’t protected at all. Every step he takes is agony – his feet are killing him.

Sigit is in unbearable agony from lameness. We need your support to stop working animals like him suffering needlessly from this debilitating condition.

There are at least 500 working horses in the Indonesian city of Jakarta and 2,000 on the island of Java. They are used predominantly for transport, pulling heavy taxis or carts piled high with building materials. Like Sigit, most have shoes that don’t fit their hooves properly – and an estimated one in three suffers from agonising lameness.

Sadly, many of Indonesia’s working horses develop crippling lameness simply because they don’t have proper care for their feet. But that means their suffering can be prevented – with your support.

Imagine the agony Sigit must feel when his shoes are hammered into the sensitive parts of his feet with masonry nails. Nails that aren’t cut, but are bent over, left to stick out to cause unthinkable damage. Or when his feet aren’t trimmed properly and he grows excessively long toes and sore heels, developing painful bruises, corns and abscesses. Suffering and disorientated, Sigit is more likely to trip over, which is incredibly dangerous when you’re working all day on busy roads.

Poor farriery practices like these have grave consequences for working animals. Eventually, the pain they cause will stop Sigit in his tracks.

Will you save working animals like Sigit from this misery?