The horses of the state-owned National Horseracing School in Chisinau continue to starve even if volunteers brought recently provisions for the animals. At the same time, the horses who belong to businessmen are maintained at the expense of the state, with the owners paying paltry contributions, the chairman of the National Anticorruption Council “Moldova Mea” Fiodor Ghelici said in a news conference, quoted by IPN.

Fiodor Ghelici said that the members of the National Anticorruption Council monitored the situation at the school for two weeks and saw inhuman treatment there. The institution’s administration initially refused to allow access to the horses closed in stables, but, after acting Minister of Agriculture Vasile Bumacov made an appeal, the situation has changed. The members of the National Anticorruption Council were astounded by the way the state-owned horses are treated, compared with the horses that are privately owned.

The Council’s chairman also said that the National Horseracing School keeps 43 state-owned horses, 28 horses that belong to the police, and 23 horses that are privately owned. The horses of businessmen are well fed and looked after, while the state’s horses are in a very poor state. A part of them are not walked out, while another part needs treatment and rehabilitation.

“There is no contract showing that the privately owned horses can be kept in a state institution. There are only some papers without stamp. The owners pay by an annual tax of 5,000 lei at a time when the tax at a similar school in Budesti commune is over 48,000 lei for a horse,” said Fiodor Ghelici.

He called on the authorities to take immediate measures and suggested closing the National Horseracing School and maintaining the state-owned horses in private horseracing institutions.

Fiodor Ghelici informed that the current director of the school Petru Moisei leased out 54 hectares of land to a businessman, who pays annually 1,000 lei to the institution, while on another 50 hectares he sowed corn, which can be used in small quantities to feed the horses.