Update (October 27, 2024): We have good news to share with you: Yesterday in Egypt, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Sherif Fathy and Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation Alaa Farouk launched the National Programme for the Care and Protection of Horses, Camels, and Pets at Archaeological Sites.

This program could mark a positive change, although it’s too early to tell whether it will be truly impactful or merely a response to pressure. At PETA, we’ve seen governments announce initiatives that sound great but fail to change things on the ground. Thanks to your efforts and those of others who have contacted Egyptian officials, the pressure to make positive changes for animals is clearly being felt. Since tourists and travel agencies are now avoiding Egypt’s famous sites, authorities decided that they had to act.

Now is not the time to let up. Words alone won’t create change—only real action will. Many of the worst abuses occur just outside the park gates, where horses and camels, ridden nearly to death, are dumped in trash pits once they’re no longer useful. The government has a lot of work to do if it’s serious about making changes. The only reliable way to ensure that horses and camels don’t suffer is to keep them away from the pyramids altogether.

Original post:

For animals used at Egypt’s top tourist sites, life is no vacation. PETA Asia’s 2019 investigation into top Egypt vacation spots, such as the Great Pyramid of Giza and Luxor’s royal tombs, documented that workers whip exhausted horses forced to haul tourists in carriages and camels who were used as photo props. These animals are exploited in the blistering heat, and the camels go without appropriate shade or food.

Following the investigation, Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities promised to make meaningful changes for the animals. Yet when investigators returned years later, in 2023 and 2024, they found that workers beat the animals when they were too exhausted to continue carrying tourists, and that camels are still sold and killed for their flesh when they’re no longer strong enough to be exploited in the tourism industry.

In correspondence with PETA Asia, a ministry spokesperson admitted that the goal of any improvements was to benefit tourists, not the abused animals. Join us in calling for a complete ban on the use of horses and camels at the pyramids of Egypt and other tourist sites, and share this exposé with your friends and family.

Horses used in Egypt’s tourism industry are forced to carry tourists in scorching temperatures and are routinely whipped as they struggle to do so, even when they’re exhausted. The animals are constantly hungry and tired and are denied veterinary care for wounds and injuries.

PETA Asia investigators went behind the wall of the ticketed tourist area at the pyramids and found the corpses of horses or camels dumped in the trash every single day. On one visit, investigators found a horse who was still alive and had been left to die in agonizing pain.

Just steps away from decaying bodies, malnourished horses ate food from piles of trash.

Instead of stopping the shameful abuse, the police and government authorities brazenly cooperate with handlers to intimidate concerned visitors at the tourist sites. On one occasion, police and a representative from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities detained a park visitor who had been taking pictures at the pyramids and demanded that he delete any photos and videos of the camels and horses, falsely claiming that it’s against the law to photograph them. They then wiped and confiscated the visitor’s SD card. Meanwhile, they ignored workers violently whipping horses nearby.

At the notorious Birqash Camel Market, where many camels are sold into the tourism industry to be used as photo props at tourist sites, investigators saw men push and beat the animals with batons and found that traders pulled the animals’ lips and ears, punched them, and prodded their testicles. The investigator also found that the throats of some camels had recently been cut.

When no longer considered useful to the tourism industry, camels are often sold to slaughterhouses, where they’re killed for their flesh. Workers slash the camels’ throats in plain view of other animals, likely causing panic to the highly social and sensitive herd animals, and as shown in the footage, camels are sometimes killed in front of children. After a worker slashed one camel’s throat, the animal continued to kick for four agonizing minutes, until another worker hacked at the animal’s neck with a machete.

Tourists who take horse or camel rides keep these cruel operations in business. Never ride an animal or participate in animal encounters, no matter where in the world you vacation—including in the U.S. 

Please use the form below to urge Egyptian officials to end this cruelty and impose a ban on using horses and camels to entertain and transport visitors at the pyramids and other tourist sites.