Letter: City should shut down carriage business

Letter: City should shut down carriage business



Jennifer O'Connor
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Norfolk, Va.
Publication Date: 03/31/09


Editor: This is in regard to the March 26 article in The St. Augustine Record, "City wins carriage appeal."

Here's one way for the city of St. Augustine to save a bundle on legal fees: get out of the horse-drawn carriage business altogether.

It's cruel and dangerous to forces horses to pull oversized loads in heavy traffic and in arduous weather conditions. Horses are forced to avoid careless and impatient drivers, breathe in lung searing exhaust fumes, and plod along scorching asphalt.

Accidents have occurred in nearly every city where carriage rides are allowed, including St. Augustine.

City officials can protect taxpayers' pocketbooks from future lawsuits and refuse to support the cruel treatment of horses by putting this industry out to pasture for good.


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