Chicago City Council Bans Horse-Drawn Carriages
Animal welfare groups welcome the positive news as the council votes to ban the controversial carriage rides throughout the city.
Credit: Amy Jones/Moving Animals
Horse-drawn carriage rides have been banned throughout the city of Chicago, as a decade of attempting to regulate the industry failed to help protect the horses.
Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) explained that he “spent the better part of a decade trying to regulate” the industry in the hope that operators would “treat their animals in a humane way.”
When violations continued, Reilly says he was left with no other option but to ban the rides from the streets of Chicago.
"There are folks that have an issue with this industry entirely related to traffic and public safety. There are others who care about whether these animals are being treated in a humane fashion. For me, it’s a combination of both," Reilly told the Sun-Times.
"I grew up surrounded by farms and horses. They’re bred to work. But they were not bred to be sucking gas fumes from the back of CTA buses and commingling with cement mixers. That’s not humane treatment of animals. They do not belong in downtown busy traffic. In other cities, we’ve seen people and animals killed because they’re co-mingled with traffic."
Just last month, a 12-year-old mare named Aisha collapsed and died after being forced to give carriage rides in New York City’s Central Park. A viral video of her heartbreaking collapse highlighted the plight of these horses and reignited calls for a ban on the deadly industry.
There is now hope that Chicago’s landmark decision, coming into effect Jan. 1, 2021, will have a snowball effect on other cities. PETA President Ingrid Newkirk called Chicago’s vote a "banner day for overworked horses."
"We have high hopes that this kinder, carriage-free city will influence others to follow suit, including New York — where a horse used for carriage rides died in Central Park earlier this year," Newkirk said.
Animal Wellness Action, an advocacy group for animal protection and welfare laws, also welcomed the news.
"Working horses on slippery asphalt for long periods of time without the proper care and nourishment is inexcusable," Marty Irby, executive director at AWA, told PEOPLE.
“The animal protection movement in America ignited 150 years ago over the issue of carriage horse abuse, yet many cities continue to allow it to persist today. The American people will no longer tolerate this archaic and abusive enterprise in our modern-day society — this isn’t 1820, it’s 2020, and we must eradicate this antiquated form of transportation and tourism."
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