How horses die in Bangladesh?

Photograph taken by Author.

After an eventful career in which she carried tens of thousands of people on her tom-tom, she is dying. She can no longer earn her own living. And her owner, Nurul Islam, left her unleashed after many many years. He can’t afford to buy fodder for a horse which isn’t serviceable.

She has been left alone to die at the massive Mymensingh Circuit House ground, where she would eat grass if she feels the urge to live another day.

Otherwise, you can spot her quietly standing on the road or on the ground. One day she would collapse and die or if her eyes and reflexes fail, she would be hit and run over by a motor vehicle.

Equine economy is booming across Bangladesh. Horses are the main carriers of goods in many places, filling the market vacuum that small trucks can’t fill up. But we still haven’t figured out how we are going to ensure a dignified death to thousands of horses, which retire from work and no longer able to perform the jobs they were reared and fed for.

Across the country, almost every wasted horse is left to die on the road, canal and riverside or on the grounds.

Author: Bureau Chief at AFP News Agency in Bangladesh.