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Video of two horses who had collapsed and struggled to get up at Ogden Point on May 4th went viral recently with over 350,000 views on Facebook, and still climbing. With public scrutiny of the carriage industry in Victoria being at its highest in months, the Victoria Horse Alliance organized a peaceful demonstration at their usual place across from where the carriages operate to hold this fading industry accountable for their exploitation of these animals. However, when they arrived a scene unfolded that has become all too familiar for them. They were harassed verbally by current and former carriage industry workers.
One horse advocate recounts the scene, “It was pretty ridiculous, they had this guy try and spy on us with his handycam while we were organizing, and then when we were arriving peacefully with signs, petitions, and outreach material these carriage people just started yelling obscenities at us.”
Another young woman who attended the demonstration said she was standing with a sign when a older man began yelling in her face asking her if she owned a horse. When she said no, he said “Well then you don’t know a fuck about anything!” She replied with a question as to whether she needed to own a whale or elephant to be against aquariums and circuses, but the man had already moved on to yelling at other demonstrators.
Police attended the rally for the entire duration, citing that they were there to keep the peace. No reason was given why citizens tax dollars were being spent to monitor a peaceful demonstration that had taken place dozens of times before without incident. However, the police did have to ask one carriage supporter who was handing out pro-carriage information where the demonstrators were standing to not interfere with the peaceful gathering.
A representative for Victoria Horse Alliance gave the following statement, “We always tell our advocates at the beginning of every demonstration not to engage with the drivers or those riding in the carriages, even when they frequently heap abuse on us. The majority of our community have faced aggression, ridicule, and intimidation from their staff.”
A press release was sent out by the carriage industry at the beginning of the Victoria Horse Alliance demonstration on May 20th. It stated the following:
“We have documented a considerable amount of evidence regarding the disturbing behaviour of this activist group. Examples of occurrences include:
- A carriage driver being directly harassed regarding their sexual orientation
- Carriage guests being intimidated, and degraded based on race
- A carriage employee being physically assaulted, resulting in a blackened eye and a guest’s property being damaged”
While the carriage industry claims they have evidence of these incidents of harassment, none was provided, nor did they name the individuals or “minority group of animal rights activists” who are allegedly acting this way.
A Victoria Horse Alliance representative said that these claims of harassment by the carriage industry have nothing to do with them, are an attempt to play the sympathy card, and distract attention away from bad publicity they had been getting since the video. Furthermore, they say the press release was obviously timed to try and connect the claims to them without any evidence.
“You have this industry that exploits animals for profit and has the mainstream media in their back pocket, they basically think they are invincible. Then this video comes out and people see the ugly side of things and so, their natural response is to lie and try to cover it up. They have done it so many times now, but we are the only ones who hold them accountable. There is no “minority group of animal rights activists” doing this, it sounds like random people in the community who disagree with animal exploitation. Is this news? Of course not, but they try to blame us because it is easier than owning up for what they are doing.”
Candace Park
Victoria Animal News
