The Bayou Bridge Pipeline is a 162.5-mile crude oil pipeline planned to stretch from Lake Charles to St. James, Louisiana, and connect oil refineries in the state with an oil-and-gas hub in Texas. This huge project by Bayou Bridge, LLC, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners, is linked with a great number of serious environmental and health concerns. The communities that will be impacted by it directly have specifically asked for an Environment Impact Statement in the case – only to have the request refused by the Army Corps of Engineers that went on to approve the project in December 2017.

The resistance camp, L’eau Est La Vie Camp – No Bayou Bridge, enumerates the many concerns that the pipeline is unavoidably connected with: “its environmental impacts to the Atchafalaya Basin, the threat it poses to drinking water for the Houma Nation and millions of other Louisiana citizens, and its role in exacerbating climate change.” These concerns would be more than enough to stand against the project. Now, one more issue can be added to the list – the problem of animal welfare.

While monitoring the proposed Bayou Bridge route, members of L’eau Est La Vie Camp were shocked to find a wild horse wrapped in barbed wire.

“From the looks of it, workers had cut the barbed wire and knocked over the fence on an easement in Jeff Davis Parish to perform a task. When finished they just packed up and left, leaving local livestock – like our friend here, to become entangled in ETP’s sloppy and incompetent ways,” the team writes. “You can even see Energy Transfer Partners’ easement flag behind the horse.”

The camp members highlight that the negligence of the workers might have a lot to do with the fact that so many of them have come from out of state to work on the pipeline project. “They do not have the connection to our lands, waters, or families as Louisiana workers would. That way ETP can ignore general good-neighbor practices, such as simply closing a fence behind them.”

Thankfully, the trapped horse, who looked like he had been stranded for quite some time, was freed by the crew members who happened to have wire cutters on them.

Nevertheless, this kind of highly distressing and dangerous situation will most likely happen to more animals as the work on the pipeline progresses. “We need to send a clear message to ETP that their sloppy construction practices will not be allowed and must not continue,” L’eau Est La Vie Camp writes. “Our water, and our lives are at stake.”

Click here to sign the petition urging the Jeff Davis Parish Sheriff to investigate and charge ETP with negligence and animal cruelty!

All image source: L’eau Est La Vie Camp – No Bayou Bridge/Facebook