St Bernabe Market

Situated three hours south east of Mexico City, St Bernabe Market is the largest livestock market in Mexico. On market days, this vast area of land can be covered by many different types of livestock, including horses.

 

Our mobile clinics often visit the market to offer advice and treatment for horses, donkeys and mules. Many of these animals have travelled long distances in very poor conditions to be sold either as riding horses or for slaughter.

 

Frequently, our vet’s main focus is the welfare of those animals destined for slaughter. They often see animals with broken legs and severe wounds. Once these injuries have been identified, our vets approach owners and inform them of their animal’s distress.

 

On many occasions they also recommend that the animals be destroyed immediately.

 

In the past owners respected such advice and allowed their animals to be humanely destroyed. Unfortunately, cooperation has diminished because non-live animals are no longer accepted at Mexican slaughter houses.

 

With this change in policy, horse welfare has been severely compromised and our teams have to splint broken legs in an attempt to ease the suffering caused by further journeys.

 

The situation at St Bernabe Market is far from satisfactory and we continue to work with UNAM and the authorities to improve the conditions of the market.

 

World Horse Welfare helps horses around the globe. To find out where we operate, please visit Countries.