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PETA to Nutter & Council: ban horse-drawn carriages

Philadelphia City Hall and political coverage from the Philadelphia Inquirer City Hall bureau.

60 comments

PETA to Nutter & Council: ban horse-drawn carriages

POSTED: Wednesday, September 2, 2009, 11:37 AM

Patrick Kerkstra

PETA is calling on Mayor Nutter and City Council to ban the city's horse-drawn carriages, which are popular tourist attractions in Old City. The release follows below.

Incident Highlights the Risk to the Safety of Animals and the Public

Philadelphia — PETA has sent an urgent letter to Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and the City Council calling on them to implement a ban on horse-drawn carriages. PETA's letter comes on the heels of an August 29 incident in which a horse who was pulling a carriage suffered a leg injury after becoming spooked and crashing the carriage into a pole at the intersection of Third and Walnut streets.

PETA points out that similar incidents have occurred in nearly every city in which horse-drawn carriages are still permitted to operate. These accidents often cause serious injuries and fatalities to horses, motorists, onlookers, carriage operators, and riders. A growing number of municipalities have realized that these dangerous operations have no place in today's busy cities. Bans have been implemented in Biloxi, Miss.; Reno, Nev.; Palm Beach, Panama City, Key West, Deerfield Beach, and Pompano Beach, Fla.; Santa Fe, N.M.; and Camden, N.J., as well as London, Paris, Beijing, and Toronto.

"Forcing horses to pull heavy loads through busy city streets is cruel, and it's an accident waiting to happen," says PETA Director Debbie Leahy. "This incident should be a wake-up call to the people of Philadelphia. The only way to ensure the safety of passengers, motorists, and horses is to ban horse-drawn carriages, so we urge the mayor and the City Council to act to prevent future tragedies."

PETA's letter to Mayor Michael Nutter is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

60 comments

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Comments (60)

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:57 PM, 09/02/2009

if we know accidents are going to happen why have the horses doing this? totally unnecessary tourist fluff that needs to go away. and seeing that horses can't speak for themselves, PETA should and has every right to do it for them.

— snakeplissken

Comment removed.

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:01 PM, 09/02/2009

What do gay horses eat? Hayyyyyyyyy

— Quarkt_98

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:03 PM, 09/02/2009

PETA people are crazy.

— ConservativePatriot22

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:10 PM, 09/02/2009

Vegan Morons

— gizmo68

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:17 PM, 09/02/2009

I've lived here my whole life and never taken a carriage ride in Old City, but now I'm going to do it just to spite PETA.

— PattyB23

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:18 PM, 09/02/2009

I'n not a PETA fan, but I agree with them on this issue. Those horses have a miserable life.

— asv

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:19 PM, 09/02/2009

Seems like PETA's putting the cart before the horse. The Mayor's got more important things to worry about. I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.

— kfeeley1111

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:39 PM, 09/02/2009

I am sick of smelling the horse s**t and watching them relieve themselves when I'm in line to get a kabob on 6th street! If I were to take a leak on the side of the street like they do I would get arrested!

— maddog987

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:42 PM, 09/02/2009

Who seriously listens to an organization that thinks eating meat, drinking milk, fishing, hunting, wearing leather shoes, and benefiting from medical research performed on lab rats are all “unethical.” Some people just have too much time on their hands.

— dannywow40

Comment removed.

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:48 PM, 09/02/2009

I'm sure the horses just love riding through the crowded streets of Philadelphia, horns blasting at them, cabs dodging around them, having to pull fat tourists all over the city on streets that are burning hot in the summer. Good luck, PETA.

— wassail

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 8:55 PM, 09/02/2009

Let criminals pull the carriages.

— kliffee

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 9:51 AM, 09/03/2009

Offshore...get your facts straight before you post..my horse is retired, so I am keeping him and taking care of him but not riding him, most people who know horses know they are a huge expense but I do it because I love them..he is on a great farm and gets a ton of love..you are the one that's DEAD weight, loser...you have no idea what I look like so shut up until you have something positive to say about the issue at hand...Philthy really is full of so many close-minded stupid, uneducated people. I hope PETA wins this one, the busy, over-crowded streets of any city is no place for horse-drawn carriages. I hope we BAN them along with Michael Vick.

— horsegirl