Image found on Facebook April 14th, 2024. Unknown photographer.
Council wearing blinders on horse carriages
The Victoria Horse Alliance is condemning Victoria city council’s decision to renew the horse carriage companies leases despite ongoing documented welfare concerns with the industry. On Thursday March 14th, council voted at the Committee of the Whole to extend the horse carriage lease agreement 6 years until 2030. It was affirmed at the April 4th council meeting by a vote …
Times Colonist letter to the editor and rebuttal.
For the past several weeks, Victoria Horse Alliance has been holding peaceful demonstrations where the horse carriages operate at the corner of Menzies and Belleville st. A letter writer to the Times Colonist wrote in on July 21st, claiming we are “harassing” the businesses and stressing the drivers. Below you will find the original letter and our rebuttal. Thank you …
Horse Carriage Ban Update 2020
The last update we gave was as Victoria City Council passed a resolution at a Committee of the Whole (CotW) meeting last summer to have staff investigate what would be involved in potentially phasing out and banning the horse carriages in Victoria. This resolution was based on the BC SPCA recommendations from May 2018 to council which proposed prohibiting horse …
Victoria City Council passes huge motion in first step to ban horse carriages.
Today, during the Victoria city council Committee of the Whole meeting, city councillors voted 5 in favour 3 opposed to the passing of the motion which will refer to staff to report back to council on including the phasing out and banning of horse carriages in the city’s strategic plan. Council will then vote on whether to move forward with …
Motion on phasing out horse carriages to be put forward.
This Thursday at city council’s Committee of the Whole meeting, a motion will be put forward by Victoria city councillor Ben Isitt to develop regulations to phase out commercial operations of horse-drawn carriages by 2023. Councillor Isitt stated his reasons for bringing forward the motion: “This proposal responds to long-standing concerns for greater safety on local roads. Specifically, horse-drawn carriages …
Carriage industry claims of harassment an attempt to distract from the issues.
On May 4th, 2018 two horses collapsed at Ogden Point. A video of the horses laying on the ground, struggling to get up was captured by a tourist and shared with the Victoria Horse Alliance after the witness felt that the carriage industry, who she went to first, was trying to cover up what actually happened. That video has to …
Former Horse Carriage Driver Quit Because of “Mistreatment of their animals.”
For years now, the horse carriage operators in Victoria have been exposed for treating the animals in their care inhumanely, outside of the general practice of putting horses in the streets with traffic. Every time new evidence comes forward regarding the welfare of the horses or reckless business practices regarding the operators, this information is passed onto the public. Often …
Sorry Victoria, There Are No Free Trolley Rides.
What is the real cost of a free ride? Each year, the Downtown Victoria Business Association sponsors free horse-drawn trolley rides through the city of Victoria. This was previously marketed as shopping tours and is supposed to be an attraction to encourage people to spend money in the downtown core during the holiday season. While the tradition of exploiting horses …
Victoria Horse Carriages: Summer of Distress
The horses working for Victoria horse carriage industry are regularly in distress and danger on the streets of Victoria, B.C.. In the summer months, this is exacerbated as they face increased pedestrian and motor vehicle traffic, and higher temperatures. Incidents were regularly witnessed in the small fraction of time we were able to view them. We documented what we could …