20/08/2021

IHP President, Sonny Richichi, rejects the Comune’s decisions 

“To start with, we are very dissatisfied not to have been included in the specialist committee set up by the Comune to deliberate amendments to the regulations governing horse-drawn carriages in the city of Palermo, in spite of having made our willingness and availability very clear. Not one single representative from an animal welfare association sat on that committee, which was composed only of veterinary practitioners and members from the various public authorities.  This was very much to be regretted, given that the matter of animal welfare was being discussed.”Sonny Richichi, President of IHP, the first Italian association dedicated to the welfare of equids, made this comment about the Comune of Palermo’s approach to examining and updating the Ordinance governing the “service” of horse-drawn carriages, which has recently been widely and severely criticised.

“We would have willingly given our best recommendations for the welfare of the horses, while the Comune limited discussions to the general regulation of the service, without spending one single word on the daily lives these animals are forced to endure, days which at best are spent between the shafts of a carriage, or confined in a stable. So, once again,we see that the welfare of these animals is nowhere within the sights of the Comune’s administration, which has merely made a show of doing something.  Fine, well this ‘something’ falls way short of sufficient”, concludes the President of Italian Horse Protection.

RELATED ARTICLES:

“The Comune of Palermo’s regulation is a joke”, claims IHP

Horse-drawn tourist carriages – horse collapses in Palermo (27 July 2021)

IHP launches a petition to ban horse drawn carriages in Florence

Florence: horse used to pull the tourist carriages hits two parked cars [VIDEO] - 14 June 2021

Will the “botticelle” move to the Roman parks? may be (1 December 2020)

Verona abolishes horse-drawn tourist carriages

Palermo – IHP makes a formal cruelty complaint

Tourist Carriages - Caserta: horse collapses to the ground and dies (August 2020)

Chicago: an end to horse drawn carriages

Horse-drawn tourist carriages: IHP appeal to tourists

Botticelle: First positive steps taken by the Municipality of Rome

Botticelle: yet another equine victim of an anachronistic and uncivilised practice

Carriages four tourists in towns: an exploitation to ban