the times | Friday August 28 2020 2GM 35
Wo r l d
A nationwide hunt has begun to catch
the culprits behind a wave of horse and
donkey mutilations and killings across
France, which investigators believe
could be part of sadistic rituals.
There have been at least 18 attacks at
night on animals in the past few
months. In the latest, a pony was found
dead and mutilated yesterday in the vil-
lage of Saint-Vallier in Burgundy.
A clear description has been given of
two suspects who slashed two ponies
and a horse and attacked their owner
with a machete at a refuge for about 100
rescued animals in the Burgundy
village of Villefranche-Saint-Phal.
Nicolas Demajean, the owner of
Ranch de L’Espoir, confronted two men
in their forties who gashed his arm
Hunt for ‘ritualistic’ horse mutilators
before making their escape.
“I set one of our dogs on them but
they ran off,” he said. “One of the ponies
had several knife cuts, one 50cm (20in)
long. The other was less seriously cut
but is extremely traumatised.
“They came here to kill, that’s for
sure. It seems to be some kind of ritual.
This is barbarity, cruelty, and a gratui-
tous act because these animals cannot
defend themselves.”
Investigators say they still have no
idea of the motive apart from guessing
that the attacks appear to involve an el-
ement of ritual, satanic or sexual acts
and could involve copycats rather than
a single gang. Some of the attacks have
left horses with sliced ears, gouged eyes
and cut genitals. Many of the victims
have died.
Bruno Wallart, an officer in Riom in
the Massif Central highlands, whereseveral horses were mutilated in late
spring, said police were keeping all pos-
sibilities open.
After two mares were mutilated but
survived in the Jura mountains at the
weekend, Lionel Pascal, the prosecutor
at Lons-le-Saunier, said: “These are
barbarous acts of pure cruelty,” and
promised a full investigation to find the
perpetrators.
This month an 18-month-old horse
was found stabbed in the heart in its en-
closure at a riding school in eastern
France. Body parts had been removed.
Police assume that groups are in-
volved because of the difficulty in re-
straining a terrified horse. A farmer
near Dreux, 55 miles southwest of
Paris, said “barbarians” had tied his
horse to a tree before cutting its throat.
Britain recorded 160 alleged cases of
“horse ripping” between 1983 and 1993.France
Charles Bremner Paris
A businessman suspected of planning
the murder of the journalist Daphne
Caruana Galizia accused Keith Schem-
bri, the chief of staff of the former Mal-
tese prime minister, of commissioning
her killing, a court in Valletta was told.
Yorgen Fenech, a gambling tycoon,
had told police that Mr Schembri had
wanted Caruana Galizia killed, Inspec-
tor Kurt Zahra said. Mr Fenech denies
complicity in the murder.
Caruana Galizia, a blogger who
wrote about corruption in Malta, was
killed by a car bomb in 2017.
Mr Zahra said that Mr Fenech had
quoted Mr Schembri as saying “pro-Maltese PM’s aide ordered
blogger’s death, court told
ceed, proceed, proceed”, after discuss-
ing the plan in 2016. Mr Fenech also
said that Mr Schembri had paid Melvin
Theuma, a taxi driver, €85,000 for the
murder. Mr Theuma has been granted
a pardon in return for information.
“Find someone to kill Daphne,” Mr
Schembri told Mr Fenech, Mr Zahra
said. He wanted to have the journalist
eliminated because she was “trouble”, it
was alleged. Mr Fenech was said to have
told police that Joseph Muscat, then
prime minister, was one of three people
who knew about his involvement after
the event, claiming that Mr Muscat
urged him to “control” Mr Theuma. Mr
Muscat resigned in January. He denies
knowing of the murder beforehand.
The pretrial proceedings continue.Malta
Philip Willan RomeAs the Thirty Years’ War consumed
central Europe, a Bavarian diplomat
and art dealer oozed through the courts
of the rich and the powerful, amassing
a contacts book that would put some
modern foreign ministries to shame.
Philipp Hainhofer was not only the
Continent’s premier gossip but also the
most distinguished autograph hunter
of his age, gathering the signatures of
Cosimo de’ Medici, a Stuart queen, two
archdukes of Austria and Rudolph II,
the Holy Roman Emperor. After his
death in 1647 a German library tried to
acquire the resulting Album amicorum
(book of friends), embellished by some
of the period’s leading painters. Nearly
four centuries later, it has succeeded.
Hainhofer’s long-lost book, hailed by
the German culture minister as an “ex-
traordinary testament to early moder-
nity”, has been acquired for €2.8 million
by the Herzog August library in Wolf-
enbüttel, which he helped to found.
The 208-page volume, something
between an art catalogue and a histori-
cal record of vicious geopolitical tur-
moil, had emerged for sale through So-
theby’s after disappearing for nearly
300 years and then passing through the
hands of several private collectors.
In an age before diplomacy had crys-
tallised into a profession, Hainhofer
worked as a kind of freelance ambassa-
dor, ferrying intelligence, art-
works and secret messages
across Europe.
Born in 1578 to a
Protestant merchant
dynasty in Augsburg,
he studied in Padua,
Cologne and Siena
before entering the
family textile busi-
ness. He began col-
lecting the signatures
and coats of arms at the
age of 15, with the aim of
creating “a memorial of
favours granted, a repository of
undying friendship, a refreshment after
the cares and toils of this life”.
The book functioned like a 17th-cen-
tury LinkedIn page, with endorsements
from leading figures of the day. The in-
scriptions were often accompanied by
intricate miniature portraits, poems
and doodles of animals and plants or
depictions of sea battles. “Some of the
contributors merely gave their signa-
tures, sometimes accompanied by a
motto, and Hainhofer arranged the ar-
tistic design, which he then charged
for,” Peter Buschel, director of the Her-
zog August library, said.
Hainhofer’s fortunes began to wane
after 1618, when the German-speaking
world was torn apart by the warbetween Catholics and Prot-
estants, which disintegrated
into a mess of great-power ri-
valries, stalked by starvation
and epidemics. He spent his
final years running errands
for Gustavus Adolphus, king
of Sweden. He died from a
stroke in relative poverty.Original autograph book signed up
The elephants in Warsaw zoo are
receiving doses of cannabis extract in a
grief counselling experiment after the
death of the herd’s matriarch.
Since Erna died in March, aged 35,
keepers noticed that the zoo’s surviving
females, Buba and Fredzia, were dis-
playing signs of stress and anxiety. In
what appears to be the first study of its
kind they have been put on a course of
cannabidiol (CBD), one of the non-
psychedelic active ingredients found in
cannabis, to soothe them.
If the experiment is a success the zoo
plans to begin administering the drug
to other large mammals.
“After the loss of the herd leader,
Fredzia and Buba are going through a
very difficult time connected with
establishing a new hierarchy, which is
even more difficult as they form a group
of only two,” Patryk Pycinski, the keep-
er in charge of the zoo’s elephants, told
Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper.
“The females are very closely related
and now have to get along with each
other, which generates a lot of stress. It
can take months or even years for ele-
phants to cope with such a big change.
We are trying to help them return to
their psychophysical balance.”
The zoo began by treating Fredzia
with direct oral doses of CBD oil, which
is also mixed into her food. Unlike tetra-
hydrocannabinol, or THC, which pro-
duces the distinctive “high” associated
with cannabis, CBD is widely believed
to produce a more mellowing effect. It
has been tested on humans as a possible
treatment for conditions including epi-
lepsy, schizophrenia and chronic pain,
although its effects and mechanisms
have been poorly characterised up to
now. It is also often taken in droplets of
oil to relieve stress and insomnia.
Several online sellers have begun
marketing CBD as a treatment for pets
that suffer from sleep loss, arthritis or
pain.
Agnieszka Czujkowska, the director
of the zoo’s animal rehabilitation
department, said that the elephants’
health would be monitored through
blood samples.
“It all depends on whether they like
the smell and taste of the cannabis,” Dr
Czujkowska told Polsat, a private
broadcaster. “So far there have been no
complaints during the tests we have
undertaken.”Cannabis oil
lifts spirits
of grieving
elephants
Poland
Oliver Moody BerlinTHE HERZOG AUGUST BIBLIOTHEK WOLFENBÜTTEL€3m sale of diplomat’s
glittering collection
completes a 400-year
quest to bring it home,
writes Oliver Moody
Rudolph II and other leading figures of the day grace the
pages of the album compiled by Philipp Hainhofer, leftp o d h b t bnce, art
sagesas
he
m of
ial of
pository of
efreshmentafter contributorsmerelyRRRudolp
pages o