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 to the Times Colonist for publishing our response.
Here is the writer’s letter:
Who finances carriage protests?
There is an organized and well-funded program of harassment underway each weekend against employees of the horse-drawn carriage businesses at the corner of Menzies and Belleville streets.
Each protester carries a large professionally printed sign and they line the three sides of the intersection, far outnumbering the carriages and drivers. While they do not verbally intervene, their presence close by is designed to dissuade prospective riders.
This has to be stressful for the drivers, and that stress can easily be felt by the horses. Those horses are obviously well-fed, well-treated, well-groomed and apparently content to perform their task.
Come on, this is Victoria, specifically James Bay. The terrain is flat, the routes easy, the pace never more than a walk and the climate benign. The horses show no signs of distress and, in the years I have observed them, seem to be treated with affection and respect by the drivers.
Who is financing this campaign? All those nice big signs, the same protesters each week?
If there was ever the slightest hint of mistreatment of the horses, I’m sure it would be splashed across this newspaper’s front page and campaigns promptly organized to remedy it.
This weekly harassment has all the trappings of a nascent political campaign, so the question now is: Who is running, for what office?
Ken Sudhues
James Bay
In response, we wrote a rebuttal that was published July 22nd and which addresses claims of harassment as well as many other details the writer ignored about the carriage companies:
Carriage protesters doing nothing wrong
Re: “Who finances carriage protests?” letter, July 21.
According to the letter-writer, having a presence close by without verbally intervening to protest animal exploitation is now “harassment.”
The horse-drawn carriage industry agrees. That is why they have repeatedly called the police with false allegations of interfering with business and of harassment. In response, the police have repeatedly told us we are allowed to be there and are doing nothing wrong.
The writer also claims the horses are content to perform, but ignores the inhumane working conditions as well as the numerous documented safety incidents.
The writer also forgets to mention that every sitting city councillor, except for one, has said they would support a ban of the horse-drawn carriages.
Additionally, the writer worries it is stressful for the carriage drivers to have protesters nearby but ignores the stress of the horses working in traffic.
Protesting is never about the individual drivers; it’s about stopping the horse-drawn carriage industry.
As for campaigns, let’s not forget the combined $150,000 horse-drawn carriage fundraisers for horses who reportedly would not be working all year, even though they went back to work after about two months. Our signs cost about $2 each.
So, if you want to know who finances the carriage protests, look no further than those who support the industry.
As long as people are exploiting animals for profit, there will be people opposed to this vestige of a bygone era.
Jordan Reichert
Victoria Horse Alliance
Victoria