For Concordia Márquez, it’s simple: one animal saved, one ‘fool’ in jail. This attitude takes this Spanish animal rights activist to places even the police won’t go. If she can save an animal, she fears nothing and no one. The only thing that scares her now is having to stop her work and close her shelter, where over 300 animals have found a safe home.
This is why Concordia urgently seeks help. She is the founder of the animal shelter Todos los Caballos del Mundo. She not only saves the lives of thousands of neglected and abused animals and cares for them on her own property, but she also ensures their tormentors and abusers are brought to justice one by one. “Otherwise, it’s like mopping the floor with the tap running,” as she says. Other organisations usually don’t dare do this out of fear of retaliation. The Spanish ‘campo’ (countryside) is harsh.
©Todos los Caballos del Mundo
To catch perpetrators, she works closely with SEPRONA, the environmental protection unit of the Guardia Civil. She has even received an award from this important police department for her significant work.
How it started
Concordia grew up in Germany as the daughter of the Spanish ambassador and led a comfortable and luxurious life there. When she later returned to Andalucia, she was horrified by the treatment of animals. Since then, she has rescued abused and abandoned animals and given them a safe home on her nearly 80,000 square metre finca in Alhaurín el Grande on the Costa del Sol.
Spanish horse meat in European lasagna
Because Concordia tenaciously pursues every case of animal abuse and does everything to bring the perpetrators to justice, she has seen and learned a lot. Based on that knowledge, she mentioned in a 2009 television interview on a national Spanish channel that many Europeans might unknowingly be eating Spanish horse meat. According to her, it was processed into ready meals such as cannelloni, chili con carne, lasagna, or hamburgers.
Biggest horse meat scandal in Europe
©Guardia Civil
And it didn’t stop with this shocking statement. At the same time, she challenged the authorities live on Spanish television to charge her if they could prove she was lying. Her boldness was based on the convincing evidence she had. The ball started rolling like a snowball effect, and soon the horse meat scandal was known throughout Europe.
This ‘Operation Gazel’ turned out to be a massive fraud with connections in dozens of countries. Eventually, 65 people were arrested, including breeders, slaughterhouses, meat processing companies, food manufacturers, and veterinarians. The mastermind behind the fraud was the Dutchman Johannes F., who had built a multimillion-dollar business trading horse meat unfit for consumption. Some of the meat was even contaminated with anti-inflammatory painkillers.
Concordia’s horse protection law
Concordia was greatly surprised when she was called by the government in 2010. They wanted to prevent a repeat of the horse meat scandal and asked for her advice. According to Concordia, the solution was very simple: create a law that protects horses as pets are protected. Because the government said they had no money for this, Concordia took on the task. So she worked day and night for a year to draft a law. They paid for everything out of their own pockets.
They presented their Royal Decree 804/2011 in the Spanish Parliament in 2011, where it was passed and has since saved the lives of tens of thousands of horses, donkeys, and mules. These animals are no longer seen as objects but as sentient beings. Based on this decree, anyone who mistreats horses can be brought to justice. Every horse must have a passport indicating whether it is intended for meat or not. Based on the rules of this horse protection law in Spain, many lawsuits have been won with severe punishments for the criminals. Some ended up in prison, others were banned from ever working with animals again.
©Todos los Caballos del Mundo
The new law was so groundbreaking that the news spread far beyond Spain. It even reached the world’s largest horse foundation (of the French actress and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot), who then contacted Concordia to draft a similar law in France.
Ongoing struggle
Despite these achievements, Concordia never sits still and continues to fight tirelessly. As far as she is concerned, there can never be enough done against animal abuse. This led her to take on the Andalucian government six years ago to ban ponies at children’s fairs. Successfully, because it has been banned for three years now.
©Todos los Caballos del Mundo
She has also significantly improved the fate of the horses that pull carriages for tourists in cities like Marbella and Malaga. While images of horses collapsing from the heat on the streets were once common, now fewer licenses are issued per city, the horses must have decent stables for the night, and during the day they must wait in the shade with fresh water for the next tourists.
Help Concordia with her important work
Everything Concordia, her sister, and other involved parties have done for animals was initially funded by themselves. Later, they had to rely on donations and sponsors. Due to sharply rising costs and other unfortunate circumstances, Todos los Caballos del Mundo is now on the brink. We wrote earlier that if urgent help doesn’t come, Concordia will have to stop her essential work in about three months and close her animal shelter. Then the more than 300 animals (besides horses, also dogs, cats, tropical birds, and other rescued animals) on her finca will face an uncertain fate, or even death. She can’t bear to think about that.
©Todos los Caballos del Mundo
If you care about the fate of animals in Spain, Concordia, and animal rights in general, and can spare something or know people or companies who would like to become permanent sponsors, please get in touch quickly. Help can be provided through bank transfers, PayPal, Bizum, the GoFundMe campaign Food for Horses, by buying medicines, paying vet bills, and sponsoring animals. Visit the website (also in English).