The Franz Weber Foundation, an international conservation organization, has urged the authorities to put an end to one of Lanzarote's tourist references, camel rides, and is considering filing a complaint with the Ministry of Ecological Transition for the treatment that some of these animals receive in the Timanfaya National Park.

This foundation thus comes up against a video widely disseminated this week on social networks, in which a camel driver is seen repeatedly hitting a very young dromedary specimen to make it stand up with the person he is carrying, whose weight weighs heavily on him. overcomes, in the face of his attempts to throw himself to the ground.

“The images, recorded by a tourist and which have gone viral on social networks with hundreds of thousands of reproductions, create a terrible picture of Lanzarote because of a minority sector determined to continue exploiting mammals as a proposal for national and international tourism. “warns the NGO.

The Franz Weber Foundation, which bears the name of the famous Swiss environmental activist who created it in 1975, already denounced two years ago “the important deficiencies” that it perceived in the welfare of camels in Lanzarote, “with a forceful veterinary report that warned about their living conditions, the long days of transportation to which they are subjected and the incidents that occurred”.

In that document he detailed “excessive loads of people, dangerous pressure on the joints of dromedaries during transit, as well as the harmful use of wire muzzles or the absence of water”, and concluded that the situation was “deficient” and caused problems physical to animals.

alternative proposals

“However, even as a result of the viral images, no administration has taken note in three years, so the naturalists urge the Cabildo (of Lanzarote) and municipalities in the area to work now on alternative proposals in the recreational transport of tourists , which would go through a program to improve companies and labor guarantees that make possible a reconversion of the sector,” the Foundation now adds.

In another statement, the Association of Canary Camel Breeders expresses “its deep response” for the behavior observed in the images of mistreatment of an animal that have gone viral this week, but defends that it is “an isolated action”. .

“This is an action that we unanimously condemn from our Association. In no way does this action represent the camel drivers of the Canary Islands. We want to clarify that these events are isolated and this treatment is in no case a common practice in the handling of these animals.. We are sure that something similar will not happen again,” says the Breeders Association.

This group emphasizes that “it works every day to protect this species” and is “on the side of those who defend nature”, so its approach is to use camels in an offer of “responsible leisure” with its standards of wellness.

“It is the Yaiza City Council -where the events denounced in the video occurred- that must be in charge of possible sanctions, the one that must ensure animal welfare and that this type of practice is not carried out in its area, although from the Association we maintain control to maintain these standards of care and protection”, he considers.