05/08/2022

The Chamber of Deputies commits the Government to prohibit the use of horses to pull carriages and other horse-drawn vehicles for tourists, for entertainment, or as a means of transport.

The Chamber of Deputies has approved a motion signed by the Hon. Patrizia Prestipino, modifying the bill on infrastructure, transport and sustainable mobility, committing the government “to prohibit the use of animals for pulling any kind of vehicle used for tourism or recreation, to be applicable throughout Italy” and “to provide for administrative sanctions and the confiscation of the vehicle, and the animal, in cases of unauthorised transport”.  Votes against the motion were registered by representatives from Fratelli d’Italia and Lega.

This is not an already effective law, it is a pledge on the part of the government, but it is still unprecedented in Italy, and we are confidently pushing harder than ever for that real culture shift, which will see the end of an anachronistic, often cruel, exploitation of horses.  There have been many incidences in recent years of horses simply collapsing to the ground, in the streets of cities and towns where such exploitation is still permitted by local regulations. Public opinion has long been against such abuse.

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