Loss of horses is loss for city

Re: “Calèches’ day is done” (Editorial, June 16)

What a shame for horses, tourism and tradition that the carriage horses are being banned in Montreal.

In New York, where I now live, we have faced the same attempts at a carriage ban by our leftist mayor who listens to radical activists.

My British immigrant family owned a stable on Côte-des-Neiges Rd. Myself, I am a horseman and have direct experience with urban carriage horses, as well as race horses, show horses and pleasure horses.

Of course we don’t need horses for urban transport anymore, but tradition and tourism are reasons enough. We don’t need pleasure horses when we have cars, but we keep horses for tradition and fun.

There is no cruelty in having urban horse carriages. Race horses have fatalities when working, and sometimes show jumping horses do also.

The SPCA in Montreal and the ASPCA in New York City share an ideology against urban horses, and want to make the industry look cruel.

In the face of a public outcry, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio had to back down from an election promise to ban carriage horses from Central Park.

Another similarity between New York City and Montreal: the proliferation of condos in the old Irish neighbourhoods of Griffintown and Hell’s Kitchen, where developers and condo dwellers don’t want the stables gone.

Former mayor Denis Coderre had the right idea before he lost the election to Valérie Plante. He was going to model carriage horse regulations on the strict rules in place in Central Park in Manhattan.

What a shame for the horses, the tourists and the city.

Mike Larsson, Queens, N.Y.