Australian carriage driver repeatedly kicks downed horse

by Jonathan Forani CTVNews.ca Writer

An animal rights groups in Australia is asking for a ban on horse-drawn carriages in Melbourne after a video of a driver kicking a collapsed horse went viral. View it at the end of this post.

In the clip posted to Facebook on Dec. 15, the carriage driver can be heard telling the woman filming to “p*** off” as she tried to intervene. The horse, named Tuesday, had collapsed and was apparently unable to stand while still chained to the carriage. After a few minutes, the horse was untethered and able to right itself. But not before a barrage of aggression from the driver.

“Get up! F****** lazy b****,” the driver is heard saying. He repeatedly tried to lift the horse from its neck, kicking its head and back (video at end of post).

A Melbourne-based group opposed to horse-drawn carriages told CTVNews.ca in a Facebook message that they have received no word from local council or state government after complaints about the incident.

“We hope this awful incident will finally make them stop passing responsibility to each other and instead work together to get horse-drawn vehicles banned,” wrote a spokesperson for Melbourne Against Horse-Drawn Carriages, adding that the viral clip is “not an isolated incident.”

In interviews with local news, Unique Carriage Hire stood by the driver.

“It is out of character, but it was a very stressful situation,” Dean Crichton from Unique Carriage Hire told 7News. “I don’t condone his language but at times like that, help is better than negative comments.”

 *  *  *

Can you believe the nerve of these people? It seems that only the lowest sorts of people are carriage horse drivers. If they aren’t, what are they doing in this business? There’s no defending it. We have tried looking at it from the point of view of the owners and drivers, met with many in major cities across the U.S. (well, the ones who weren’t making threats and threatening violence anyway). The obvious conclusion is this — it’s a no win for the horse.

A carriage horse’s daily routine and standard of living is unnatural and unhealthy very similar to that of a racehorse’s. The nature of the day-to-day business itself is always potentially dangerous and again, totally unnatural for the horse, which often results in mental and physical stress. Then there is the noise factor, congestion, traffic and other “frighteners” that can make a horse bolt, and the amount of weight they are expected to pull. And of course, there are the falls, the collapses and accidents with other vehicles.

The horse drawn carriage business is an archaic business whose time is well passed and ultimately, animal cruelty.

You know that the ASPCA was founded in New York to deal with all sorts of animal cruelty, but especially the plight of the horses who pulled nearly every type of conveyance imaginable through the city’s dirty and congested streets. Henry Bergh, the group’s founder, was a wealthy and well connected man. The story goes that while on assignment in Russia as an American diplomat, he stopped a carriage driver from beating his fallen horse.

When Bergh got home he went straight to work forming a group to help horses and other animals. Today’s ASPCA washed their hands of the plight of New York City’s carriage horses some years ago now, as we understand it.

 *  *  *

Here’s the video of the collapsed Melbourne, Australia carriage horse. It’s hard to watch.

NEWS SOURCE: CTV News Canada at https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/australian-carriage-driver-repeatedly-kicks-downed-horse-1.4733811.

In 2017, Melbourne’s Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said he did not believe horses had any place among the bustling traffic of Melbourne, and said some operators acted like “cowboys” with no regard for the welfare of the horses they force to work long hours, often in extreme weather conditions, while walking on hard pavement and inhaling exhaust fumes. Placing large animals who scare easily into congested city traffic is as dangerous as it is cruel.

Wonder what the current Lord Mayor of Melbourne Sally Capp, elected just one year after, has to say.

In the meantime, there is a Facebook page — Melbourne Against Horse Drawn Carriages.
—-

Featured Image: Two carriage horses nuzzle for comfort in downtown Melbourne, Australia.