CHICAGO (CN) — Horse-drawn carriages will soon be a thing of the past in Chicago, the city council voting Friday to stop issuing licenses for the tourist attraction.
Although only three companies operate carriage rides in Chicago, an ordinance effectively banning the industry quickly passed without debate.
“We’re very thankful,” said Jodie Wiederkehr, executive director of the Chicago Alliance for Animals.
For its first animal welfare campaign, CAA has worked since 2017 to get carriages off the streets of Chicago.
“They have absolutely no freedom,” Wiederkehr said of the horses. “We don’t believe it’s a humane industry at all.”
In addition to meeting with various aldermen, CAA held outreach events near the main carriage stand, got petitions signed and received over 200 endorsements from businesses and other organizations.
According to Wiederkehr, many people, from locals to suburbanites to international tourists, said they “hated seeing horses on the streets.”
“We’re very proud of our grassroots work,” Wiederkehr said of the ban finally passing. “We did all this work on our own time with no pay.”
CAA and other animal rights organizations have argued that carriage horses in big cities like Chicago are overworked and overstimulated, and seem to have won aldermanic support.
Opponents of the ban, however, say horses are meant to work alongside people and the ban is misguided.
“The people who decide the fate for these animals and these owners should at least know something about them,” said Mindy Patterson, President of The Cavalry Group, which works to support animal-related businesses.
“If these horses were not pulling a carriage, they would be in a stall, paddock or field,” Nicki VanTuyl, president of the Carriage Operators of North America, said. “Now this sounds wonderful…but horses enjoy interacting with humans and other species on a daily basis. They are herd animals, whether the herd comes in the form of other horses or humans.”
“There’s a kind of bond between people and horses,” said David Nobbe, a Board Director for the Horsemen’s Council of Illinois. “They respond to each other.”
“Horses have been an integral part of the growth of our society,” Nobbe added. “At one time there were thousands of horses on every street.”
City streets are no place for horses, however, said Alicia Prygoski, the Legislative Manager for the Animal Legal Defense Fund, which has worked towards more stringent carriage regulations in cities like New York and St. Louis.
“It’s an environment that has so much stimulus,” she said. “You are seeing horses being overworked, stressed out, in extreme heat and cold.”
“Being forced to tow hundreds of pounds in traffic, weather conditions and fumes…it’s no way for a horse to spend its life, but this is what carriage horses are forced to do.”
“We’re talking about really unhealthful conditions,” said Director of Legal and Legislative Programs for the Animal Law Resource Center Marcia Kramer of the high-congestion areas like the Loop and Magnificent Mile, tourist areas where horse carriages are usually found.
VanTuyl said “the horses that are used in public have been chosen because of their demeanor and their temperament. Just as not all humans like to work with the public, it’s the same with our horses. Some love the hustle and bustle, and others would rather work quieter events.”
“Nobody knows for sure what an animal is thinking or feeling,” said Nobbe, who was an equine investigator for the state for ten years. “They seem to like their jobs. They look forward to their daily routine.”
“I treat them as I treat my children,” VanTuyl said of her horses. “This is the norm in our industry. These animals are not only livestock, but our four-legged family members.”