The city of Siena’s famed bareback horse race, the Palio, is a big tourist draw in Tuscany, but Italian Tourism Minister Michela Brambilla said it amounts to cruelty to animals and suggested it’s time to end the centuries-old spectacles.
Brambilla blasted such generally cherished traditions at a news conference in Rome on Thursday.
Her suggestion immediately irked prominent members of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative coalition, already frayed by political squabbling, and several hours later she issued a statement insisting that she hadn’t demanded the Palio to be banned.
At the news conference, Brambilla praised the Spanish region of Catalonia for banning bullfights last month and said it was time for Italy to review its own pageantry that might exploit animals.
Siena draws tens of thousands of visitors each summer with runnings of the Palio race at breakneck speed when jockeys, sporting colorful medieval symbols of 17 fiercely competitive neighborhoods, whip their mounts around a dirt-covered oval track converted from the main cobblestone square. Falls by horses aren’t rare, and sometimes the animals have had to be killed because of their injuries.
“If Catalonia has given up the corrida [bullfights], we could can give up some Palio” races, Brambilla said.
She also lamented that several towns have traditions that exploit horses, donkeys and other animals.
Siena Mayor Maurizio Cenni called Brambilla’s remarks “incredible” and a “shame” for Italy.
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