Victoria Animal News Animal news for Victoria and across B.C.
At least the second horse carriage accident in the past three months.
At approximately 7:45pm last night, a witness contacted Victoria Horse Alliance with a report of a horse carriage accident at the cruise ship terminal at Ogden Point.
One witness who took pictures of the incident immediately after it happened described what happened:
“The horses actually were partially on top of the car. They then were pulled back enough to stand beside the car which did incur a lot of damage both on the roof and the side windows were broken in completely. There bottom side rail of the car was also off the vehicle. Both horses were were eventually taken off the harness and both were able to walk back to the stable area where I saw they were being treated. No one on the carriage looked hurt and I noticed no medical people tending to the passengers, so I assume everyone was okay.”
Another individual, who was a tourist, reported the following:
“What I saw was the horse trolley loaded with tourists running directly into the car at a fair speed. It appears the horse was off course and then got spooked by a loud noise and in order to prevent the horses from running into the crowd, the driver had to choose to run them towards the parked cars.”
The witness reported that the horse was bleeding and that their bridles got stuck together. Police did attend the site of the accident as there was property damage from the collision. There was evidence of a damaged trolley at the cruise ship terminal area where the carriage operators keep the horses during the day.
Just this past May, a horse trolley was involved in an accident at the Ogden Point cruise ship terminal. Originally, when the accident first happened, the carriage industry released a statement that lied about incident, but video that was later released by the Victoria Horse Alliance revealed the truth of the events. Based on this, and years of other documented welfare concerns with the horse carriages, the BC SPCA recommended to the City of Victoria that the horse carriages be banned from city streets. City council has referred the BC SPCA’s letter to staff for them to report on their options, but council has taken no action at this time.
Jordan Reichert, founder of the Victoria Horse Alliance and city council candidate said that he is not surprised to hear of this incident and that unless council follows through on the BC SPCA’s recommendations, accidents like these will continue to happen.
“We don’t know if there have been other accidents at this point because we only find out when people who care witness it, but we know there will be more. The majority of the current council have failed to take this issue seriously and have shown animal welfare isn’t important to them. I will be trying to change that as a city councillor this fall.”
People interested can help by signing the petition here.
Candace Park
Victoria Animal News
These poor animals! Horse carriage rides need to be stopped and the public needs to realize that it may be fun for them, but most certainly not for the animal.
Stop animal cruelty. While I love the idea of the horse carriages the people running them care about money not horses!
I have seen these horses when our ship docked. it seemed to me that they are left standing on concrete for very long periods of time. It seems to me that they need to have a softer place to stand. And due to the overwork they seem to experience in extreme weather, they probably should be banned.
The mayor of victoria has made huge efforts to make the cyclist to be safe a huge costs, she has removed a statue for the reasons pertaining indegious people… now it is time for her to take up the side of the horse and make it safe for them.
Lisa do something about this
You can hear the hard shoes these horses are wearing – why are they not made of rubber or some other material that grip the pavement? They had trouble getting off the road partly because of lack of grip.
These horses are in slavery for the entertainment of people. SHAME1
End this form of exploitation – now.
Thanks much,
Tony G.
We don’t need horse drawn carriages anymore. We have things called tour buses.
“In order to prevent the horses from running into the crowd, the driver had to choose to run them towards the parked cars”. Next time, the driver may have to choose between a crowd of people or oncoming traffic. Hmm, heads or tails?
Let’s take the horses out of down town…it is a cruel place for those magnificent animals.
This was very sad to watch, the owners obviously do not look after their horses very well. I agree with a ban.
Time to get rid of this stupid idea .It is flat out ANIMAL ABUSE ..WE the people that live here see this abuse veryday .Visitors only see it once .It is terriable unnessacary and abusive .It is wrong to put the all mighty dollar over the welfare of an animal …greed greed greed .Those poor horses is what EVERYONE is thinking .