Horse-drawn Carriages
Horse-drawn Carriages in Vienna: Out of the city!
Animal rights activists have been concerned about the carriage horses. And are still committed.
Animal welfare societies have joined to form the Pro – Carriage Horse association.
Together, the association against livestock factories (VGT), the animal welfare society Robin Hood, the society RespekTiere, Vienna’s animal welfare society, Tyrol’s animal welfare society, Lower Austria’s animal welfare union, the animal sanctuary Purzel & Vicky, the union pro-tier and also the animal paradise Schabenreith, addressed a petition at City Vienna, calling for progressive changes for the sensitive horses.
For the first time, the plagued horses have days off in case of extreme heat, currently only from 35 degrees upwards. We think, this bar is set too high and demand it being lowered to 30 degrees.
The burden horses have to bear inside the city, especially in times of extreme heat, is intolerable.
In addition, they are also exposed to other unpleasant weather conditions, such as harsh winters. The traffic, stress and long hours of “duty”. Due to the aforementioned high stress levels, some horses get prone to biting – the current “solution” is a muzzle. The tying up of the tail should prevent getting stained when dropping off faeces, but this leads to enormous restrictions in movement.
Again and again, we have to witness drivers bringing their horses to the stands even before their actual start of work – which is an illegal extension of the already long working day of carriage horses. Even “after work”, they are not allowed to live a species – appropriate life, often, the night accommodations are insufficient, sometimes even cellar-like stables.
We demand daily, free running for these horses.
Moreover, the horses should no longer have to be in the stressful city centre.
This applies to all cities. Especially for Vienna, we demand “Out of the city”.
Horse-drawn carriages should only be used in the Prater (not the amusement park!) and other suitable, low-traffic green spaces.
Here again the demands, briefly summarized:
Among the immediately enforceable legislative changes are shorter working hours, heat free at 30 degrees Celsius, a driving ban on ice, the funding of electric vintage cars, daily free run and stricter inspections of horse-drawn carriages by the responsible authorities. As a sustainable solution to the ban on driving in the city centre, it is proposed, not to grant new licenses and to initiate a period of transition to ban horse-drawn carriages in the first district.
Please take a stance with your signature.
(link to the petition)
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