It was a busy week on the carriage front, on Thursday we saw some more media, and coverage included this great clip from A Channel: Long-time supporter Heather Steel also had her excellent letter published. As well, there was a story from the Interior of 30 horses from a thoroughbred breeder’s ranch who were destined for slaughter because he couldn’t afford to keep them. This exemplifies a core issue: the keeping, collecting and breeding of horses. Not unlike cats and dogs, horses are treated much the same, and the same over-population issues arise. Similarly, if the breeding were to stop, we’d see an end to all horse exploitation, including the carriages; as well as an end to these unfortunate situations where a horse is sent to a slaughterhouse (or a cat or dog ‘put down’). Further, is this really just an ultimatum? Isn’t the message here ‘buy my horses or…

On the evening of Monday, July 19th, there was an accident with the horse-drawn carriages down on Dallas Rd., highlighting the public safety risk inherent when horses are forced to pull carriages in urban environments. I’ve been campaigning specifically on this issue for four years now, and spoken with hundreds of people from James Bay, and one thing is clear: these are not rare events – and occur nearly every month, although they’re rarely covered or reported on. Check out our campaign page with lots more info on the subject. 1/3rd of the people I surveyed in James Bay had personally witnessed some kind of incident, or a horse in distress. Have you? Back to Monday’s accident: you can read a very short (and rare) Times Colonist report here (another report here) and the TC also features a couple photos from the crash: Photo credit: Bradley Pompu I’m told that…