...my treasures do not sparkle they clink,
they shine in the sun and neigh in the night...

 

 

Botticelle: First positive steps taken by the Rome Comune, we await further measures

25/07/2018

Today the office of the Mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, announced the approval of a Council Resolution regarding a new Regulation of the comune concerning the “botticelle”, the horse- drawn carriages which take tourists on trips around the city.

The Resolution will now have to make its way for approval through the local Council and Assembly offices.
For now, all we know is that the “botticelle” will be assigned routes within or alongside parks and Historic Roman villas and their parks, thus avoiding the traffic of busy city roads. There should also be some limitation on the type of horse that can be used, on the hours they work, and with heavier penalties for non-observance of the rules.

We await the outcome of this bureaucratic journey, and the final text of the Resolution, before expressing our opinion. For now, we take the opportunity to welcome this council approval as a positive sign, a formal recognition of the issue, even though in itself it will not resolve the heart of the problem: in addition to the general exploitation of the animals, they are forced to live in a manner totally unnatural to them, existing either between the shafts of a carriage or isolated in a prison-like box a few metres square.

We therefore plan to request a meeting with Mayor Raggi in the hopes of offering our expertise for providing, alongside the provisions of the Resolution, the setting up of a more natural management of the horses, and concrete assessments of their wellbeing.


RELATED ARTICLES:

Botticelle: yet another equine victim of an anachronistic and uncivilised practice (June 2016)