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ANIMAL

Neiiiighbours offer help to Swedish riding adventurer

Suzanna Holmqvist, 28, is taking her horse and her dog on a massive adventure across Sweden and is being offered plenty of help along the way.

Neiiiighbours offer help to Swedish riding adventurer
Suzanna Holmqvist taking her horse and dog for a shorter walk. Photo: private

The Swede, from Limedforsen, Dalarna, has decided to make her long life dream come true and is going to ride across Sweden, all the way from Skåne in the south to Lapland in the north.

“It’s just something I have always wanted to do,” Holmqvist told The Local on Tuesday.

Her voyage will start on April 28th, when she'll take her horse Krumelur and her dog Jasmine on a four-month journey through Sweden.

Since she announced the trip on her Facebook page she's already had plenty of offers of help.

“What an adventure you have in front of you! Would love to join for a couple of miles around Sundsvall, and if you are passing Sundsvall we can offer you stable and a bed,” one woman wrote.

“So exciting! I also want to do something like this sometime!! At our place in Borås you get food and sleep if you are riding through!” another woman posted on the site.


Suzanna and her horse Krumelur. Photo: private.

Holmqvist claims the attention she's since grabbed in the Swedish media was unexpected, but she has decided to make the most of it and will fundraise for an animal organisation during the trip.

“All the positive response made me want to make something good of it too.”

The main preparation for the trip so far has been to train the horse and herself to travel long-distances. However the Swede claims the bigger challenge will probably be the mental aspect. Holmqvist believes the trip will be boring from time to time, but said that she was not running to a tight schedule and had allowed herself plenty of leeway in case her and her animals came across unplanned obstacles.

“We will have plenty of time if something goes wrong.”

For others inspired enough to make similar tough solo journeys, Holmqvist offered this advice: “To be really purposeful and not let yourself give up because of little things — keep up the good mood.”

Article by Emma Lidman

ANIMAL

Paris authorities to shut down bird market over cruelty concerns

The Paris city council on Wednesday agreed to shut down a live bird market operating in the historic centre close to Notre Dame cathedral, responding to rights activists who called it a cruel and archaic operation.

Paris authorities to shut down bird market over cruelty concerns
Photo: AFP

The bird market on Louis Lepine square in the centre of the French capital has long been a fixture in Paris, operating close to the famous flower market.

But Christophe Najdovski, Paris' deputy mayor in charge of animal welfare, said that the market was a centre for bird trafficking in France while conditions for the birds were not acceptable.

“This is why we are committed to changing the regulations to ban the sale of birds and other animals,” he said.

The closure had been urged by activists from the Paris Animals Zoopolis collective who had called the practice of showing the caged birds “cruel and archaic”.

France and Paris have in the last months adopted a series of measures aiming to show they are at the forefront of efforts to protect animal welfare.

The government said in September it planned to “gradually” ban mink farms as well the use of wild animals in travelling circuses and dolphins and orcas in theme parks.

Parc Asterix, which normally has some two million visitors a year, announced last month it would close its dolphin and sea lion aquarium.

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