End Cruel Horse-Drawn Carriage Rides at Hamburg Pavilion
End Cruel Horse-Drawn Carriage Rides at Hamburg Pavilion
Starwood Retail Partners manages Hamburg Pavilion in Lexington, Kentucky and has allowed dangerous horse-drawn carriage rides to take place at the property over the last few years. Most recently during the holiday season during a global pandemic these rides were promoted with a total disregard to public safety. There are numerous photos of a person dressed as Santa next to children and families without masks, not to mention the carriage is so small proper social distancing would have been difficult to maintain.
Carriage rides are not only a public safety threat, they are dangerous for horses too. Accidents are no stranger to the horse-drawn carriage industry, there have been countless incidents in which carriages have been hit by impatient or careless drivers. And accidents have occurred in nearly every city where carriage rides are allowed. In a state which prides itself on its horses, we shouldn’t be allowing carriage rides to happen at all, horses shouldn’t be forced to dodge traffic, or pound the pavement for hours at a time. The long-term effects of this can be debilitating to horses, because of their large lungs, they may develop respiratory ailments from the vehicle exhaust fumes they breathe, and they can suffer painful leg problems from walking on the hard pavement.
Carriage rides are so dangerous and cruel that they’ve been banned in many cities including Chicago; Camden, New Jersey; Salt Lake City, and more. Starwood Retail Partners has the chance to show Lexington that it’s a progressive and compassionate company by refusing to allow horse-drawn carriage rides at Hamburg Pavilion.
There are so many kind options that could be promoted instead, like rides in a classic car, ice skating, a concert, etc. Please help protect horses and people in Lexington by urging Hamburg Pavilion to ban these dangerous horse-drawn carriage rides.
For more ways to help please call or leave a short polite comment on Hamburg Pavilion's social media pages to urge it to ban carriage rides from its property: