Yesterday an interview with the Ottawa Citizen about how horse carriage rides should be banned was featured on the front page.
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The paper was provided with other sources (a national animal rights executive director, a director of animal welfare from an SPCA & a sanctuary founder who has rescued former carriage horses), but sadly none were included. There is a lot of information I shared that is missing from this article, and I will be submitting an Op-Ed in addition, but for now let me share this:
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Horses are sentient animals, not machines. Even if they enjoy physical work, they deserve freedom from having to work set, scheduled times where they are required to interact with people because they are contractually obligated to. The benefit to continuing to use them is more so for the humans operating a for-profit business than it is for the horses who were bred specifically for the purpose of being used for entertainment.
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There are zero regulations protecting horses used this way in Ottawa. The Ottawa Farmers' Market has no bylaws regulating their use, City of Ottawa has no bylaws protecting them, the Ontario PAWS act exempts farm animals from protection and the federal criminal code only penalizes “wilful” neglect which is not defined.