City staff to examine curbs on horse-drawn carriages
A recommendation from the B.C. SPCA that horsedrawn carriages be banned from Victoria streets will be examined by city staff.
The SPCA recommendation comes following a review of a video of two harnessed horses struggling to find their footing when they ended up lying on the pavement after the carriage they were pulling was bumped by a bus. Neither of the animals was injured. B.C. SPCA CEO Craig Daniell said in a letter to Victoria council that video of the May 4 incident at Ogden Point showed there was “a serious threat to public safety and the animals’ welfare.”
Daniell recommended that if tours continue, they should only take place in a park environment to reduce dangers to public safety and animal welfare.
Coun. Charlayne Thornton-Joe said it behooves council to get more information from staff rather than just receiving the letter for information.
“There’s a lot of different information in the letter from the B.C. SPCA and there may be different things that we need to consider,” she said.
“I think if we send it to staff, staff will be able to look at the letter and bring back a full report. If we have additional questions once that report comes back we can ask them at that time,” Thornton-Joe said.
Other SPCA recommendations include: • Horse-drawn vehicles be limited to those that require only one horse. • Establishing procedures for urgent situations. • Requiring operators to complete incident reports, which would include a description of what happened, location and witness details. • Requiring operators to have an emergency kit for each carriage, containing an extra halter, four traffic cones and first aid kits for both people and horses.