The past weekend saw more unending protests against the dismissal of Marek Trela, Jerzy Białobok and Anna Stojanowska. On Saturday by the Torwar arena, where the Cavaliada fair took place, a previously announced demonstration was held, during which signatures were collected in their defence. A separate letter was also sent to the Polish authorities by the daughters of the many year and acknowledged director of Janów Podlaski Stud, Andrzej Krzyształowicz.
Another organization to voice their concern about the events taking place in Poland was WAHO, in a letter signed by President Peter Pond, as well as ECAHO. ECAHO’s President Jaroslav Lacina (who also took part in the Saturday’s demonstration), similarly to others who greatly care about Arabian horse breeding, is concerned among others about breaking the continuity of the management of the studs: „Immediate dismissal of Anna Stojanowska, Marek Trela and Jerzy Bialobok from the whole system without any possibility to share and transmit their experiences achieved during many years of hard work means big disruption and it can cause the complete collapse of the whole Arabian horse breeding in Polish state studs”, he alarms. The banner that he held – “It’s easy to destroy, but harder to build” – expressed the same opinion. Let’s remind that the Agricultural Property Agency is a member of ECAHO. As an ownership supervisor over the state studs it possesses two votes.
Nationwide media still widely inform about the conflict. The most interesting for the Arabian horse community were two interviews: with Marek Trela in “Polska. The Times”, where for the first time the former head of Janów Podlaski gave details about the circumstance about Pianissima’s death; and with Jerzy Białobok in “Gazeta Wyborcza”. Though the low spirits of the dismissed Michałów director were easy to detect, still he kept style and retained his characteristic sense of humour.
The internet forums are still abuzz. Examples such as Babolna are recalled – studs that collapsed or lost significance after management changes. Some call for a boycott of the Janów sale, others say that that’s not the way, that we should support Polish breeding in this difficult time. At the same time there are voices against embryotransfer in Arabian horse breeding. This method of reproduction, though nothing new, always caused huge controversy. Now, because the matter of collecting embryos was one of the reasons for the directors’ dismissal, the issue is again causing disputes, on the side of protests flowing from all over the Arabian horse world.
It is also interesting to note that the conflict about the state studs has been incorporated into the political battle, which has been taking place in Poland since the October election won by the PiS party. The subject was brought up during the thousands of people rally organized by the KOD (Democracy Protection Committee) on Saturday – Jerzy Sawka (from the Partynice track in Wrocław) spoke on this matter. However there are also opinions that there is a risk that such a move may reduce the matter of the Arabian state studs to one of many allegations of the opposition towards the ruling party and as a consequence take away its uniqueness and non-political character, something that the community is trying hard to emphasize.
However the protests’ participants are still counting that they will bring an effect and that the dismissed people return to their posts. Meanwhile the deputy minister of agriculture, Jacek Bogucki, addressed the accusations of a lack of competence of the newly appointed stud directors (on the wpolityce.net portal, February 26th). “These people have been appointed until new people, who will ultimately manage the studs, will be chosen in competitions for these positions. These people have required licenses to manage companies of the Polish State”, he said.
Today at noon in Warsaw (Zielna Conference Center) a joint press conference will be held with Anna Stojanowska, Mare Trela and Jerzy Białobok. Also invited is the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Krzysztof Jurgiel and the president of the Agriculture Property Agency, Waldemar Humięcki.
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An earthquake among the authorities of Polish state breeding
