BELGRADE, Serbia (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Drugs are in the headlines with the Rolling Stones once again, as preparations to sedate approximately 300 horses stabled at Belgrade’s racecourse during a Stones’ concert have enraged Serbian animal lovers.
The concert is expected to draw more than 100,000 fans to the Hippodrome, Belgrade’s largest venue. The horses will be only a few meters from the stage area.
“Horses differ, the same as people. Some are more nervous, more skittish,” Hippodrome employee Jovanka Prelic told Reuters. “if they get too nervous or start to panic during the concert, they’ll get sedatives.”
A dozen equestrian clubs at the racecourse are working with concert organizers to allow a sufficient number of personnel to be at the stables during the concert to give the animals the pills.
Serbia’s biggest animal protection society, ORCA, has claimed that holding the concert would be extremely harmful to the horses, and sedating them is not the answer. The group has said that if it fails to convince the organizers to change venues, it would contact the Rolling Stones directly to ask them to use their influence.
The July 14 concert will be the band’s first appearance in Serbia. –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
