Victoria owners get relief from top court

MUMBAI — The Maharashtra government has been told by the Supreme Court to develop a scheme to rehabilitate owners and drivers of horse carriages over the next six months.

While refusing to stay an order of the Bombay High Court, which had imposed a ban on the operation of horse carriages, the apex court allowed the Victoria operators to ply their trade for six more months. The court also asked the operators to withdraw their special leave petition and asked them to approach the Bombay High Court with a review petition.

Scores of horse carriages are operated in the evenings and nights and on holidays in popular places in Mumbai, including the Gateway of India, Colaba, Nariman Point and Marine Drive.

Animal rights activists, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) and People for Animals, have accused the operators of ill-treating the animals. Peta India had provided the court reports of cruelty to horses from its numerous inspections of Mumbai’s horsedrawn Victoria industry.

The reports revealed that the horses were often injured, sick or severely malnourished and that they were forced to stand amidst their own waste in filthy and decrepit stables. Many of the horses were frequently denied adequate rest, water and veterinary care.

According to Dr Manilal Valliyate, director of veterinary affairs, Peta India, “numerous investigations have found that Mumbai’s Victoria industry is inherently cruel, and any delay in implementing the rehabilitation scheme for horse carriage owners would mean another day the horses will pose a traffic risk and will suffer on the road”.

Peta argued that forcing horses to spend their entire lives on pavement — when they are meant to walk on grass — is inherently cruel. Once a horse loses function in a joint, as quickly happens when they’re made to walk on pavement or haul heavy loads, more stress will be placed on the other joints, tendons and ligaments.

As a result, the healthy parts of the legs are subjected to wear and tear, eventually leading to inflammation of all the joints, tendons and ligaments. No veterinary medicine or surgery can cure this condition and it cannot be reversed.