A young woman was walking along Dadar Chowpatty beach in Mumbai when she came across one of those horses rented out for tourist rides. She didn’t need to ask anything: all it took was looking into its eyes to understand that something was wrong.
Its body was exhausted, and a rope was lodged in its mouth that seemed to be hurting it. The animal kept trying to pull it out with its tongue, over and over, never managing to do so. She stayed there, touching its face, feeling completely helpless in the face of something she couldn’t fix.
This horse is just one among thousands of animals that are born, live, and die carrying others without ever having chosen any of it. No permits, no rest, no voice. As long as the ride business continues to operate this way, the question left hanging is simple: how long can human entertainment justify the suffering of someone who cannot say no?
