PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Activists in Philadelphia are pushing for the ban of horse-drawn carriages, sharing concerns about the safety of the horses regularly seen in Old City.
"You have that childhood perception that it's a magical experience and the horses love it and you love it, and everything is great,” said Nicole Martin from Audubon, Pennsylvania. She is among the countless number of people who have taken a ride in the shadow of American history.
But activists are calling for these types of horse-drawn carriage tours to end.
"In our eyes, we believe that forcing horses to pull tourists, to pull a thousand pounds through city streets, is cruel. It's wrong,” said Stephanie Curson, co-founder of Ban Horse Carriages Philadelphia, which organized a weekend rally to bring attention to the practice.
"These horses are exposed to all types of severe weather in the winter, in the hot scorching summer, and it's only getting hotter. They are pounding pavement for hours."
The group's push comes as a 14-year-old overheated horse collapsed on a Manhattan street.
More than 30,000 people have signed a Change.org petition asking Philadelphia leaders to ban the horse-drawn rides.
"Horses are a flight animal. They could spook at any moment. So we feel that these horse carriages are not only cruel, but are a big danger to the public,” Curson said.
"We just feel like it's time for Philadelphia to move to more ethical, more progressive tourism. We don't want to take anyone's jobs. We want the company to switch over to electric carriages."
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Curson’s group had already scheduled the weekend protest, and another one in September, before the horse collapse in New York. A group there a halt to carriage horses working until evaluations are done on all of the animals.
City regulations say that the horses aren’t allowed to pull carriages in temperatures above 91 degrees, or wind chills below 26. Carriage companies also must allow 15 minutes of rest for every hour.
The city says people can call the Animal Care and Control Team if they see horses operating in unsafe conditions.
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76 Carriage Company, the lone horse-carriage group in Philly did not initially respond to requests for comment.
On their website, it states the horses have large stalls during off-hours, and they get time off for a vacation in Lancaster County every year.