04/12/2025

IHP has filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office requesting that those responsible be identified and investigated for the crime of animal abuse, and that the horse be placed under preventive seizure. IHP has also stated its willingness to take the animal into its Rescue Centre for mistreated horses in Montaione (Florence), and has called for the withdrawal of the operator’s licence.

“Making a horse trot at speed in the city, on asphalt, while pulling a heavy carriage means putting the animal at serious risk of crashing into the bus, into other vehicles, onto pavements, barriers or traffic lights, as well as risking a disastrous fall: the horse is shod with metal shoes, which can easily cause it to slip on asphalt,” says IHP president Sonny Richichi. “Not only that: the agitation and fear imposed by the carriage driver inciting the horse to run, combined with the presence of a large vehicle just a few dozen centimetres away, can trigger a panic reaction in the horse which, given its size and strength, would be uncontrollable and potentially catastrophic.”

IHP recalls that in Florence itself, several serious incidents have occurred in recent years: in March of this year, a horse collapsed to the ground after slipping on the asphalt while pulling a carriage with tourists on board; a few weeks earlier, on 8 January, a horse took fright, bolted and caused a series of accidents; in September 2024, a horse slipped on Ponte Vecchio and fell heavily; the most dramatic incident occurred in June 2021, when a panicked horse bolted with the carriage still attached, crashing into two cars, one of which belonged to then–Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese.

“It is therefore publicly known that a horse, under such conditions of exploitation, is an animal that can very easily put itself and people in serious danger,” Richichi adds. “This is due to the failure to respect its ethological characteristics and the defences it is naturally equipped with — the first and most important of which is flight. Consequently, the carriage driver could not have been unaware of the risk to the animal and to any passers-by when he made the horse trot along a public road ‘competing’ with a bus.”