Progreso en Verde, a political party that champions the rights of animals in the Balearics, has called on EU institutions to end the exploitation of horses. In drawing attention to the ‘horse buggies’ that ferry tourists around Mallorca, we are reminded that this is not an isolated issue - horses the world over are being forced to endure terrible hardships.

An animal rights-focused political party operating in Spain’s Balearic Islands has this week called on the EU to step in and address the exploitation of horses. In letters sent to the European Parliament and the European Court, Progreso en Verde (Progress in Green) stated that the mistreatment of horses had the “approval of institutions”, a damning indictment of the European legislature and its failure so far to act.

Guillermo Amengual, president of Progreso en Verde, said that Spain’s image in regards to animal protection was “shameful in capital letters”, while on the island of Mallorca - where horse-drawn buggies laden with tourists are commonplace and operate with alleged impunity in regards to breaches of local bylaws - the situation was particularly terrible.

"The administrations fail to comply. We have political parties who allow, approve and whitewash the exploitation of horses," said Amengual in a statement to the media in which Progreso en Verde also stressed that it would use every power available to end the exploitation of horses.

Like in many other European tourist destinations, horses in Mallorca are forced to pull carriages or buggies for paying tourists on tours or simply from one attraction to the next. According to PETA writing in 2018, horses quickly become dilapidated after years of walking on hard roads before succumbing to the hot temperatures and collapsing from exhaustion:

The horses are made to walk and stand on hard surfaces for long periods, which typically causes them to develop debilitating leg conditions and sustain damage to their hooves. Many eventually become lame. Owners and drivers often ignore these painful conditions – either because they don’t recognise the animals’ distress or because they’re unwilling to lose a few days’ work to allow them to rest and heal. In Mallorca, Spain, many debilitated horses collapse – especially in the summer, when temperatures regularly reach 40 degrees.

PETA goes on to list the cities in Europe and the rest of the world where local authorities have ceased to issue commercial tourist-carriage licenses, including London, Paris, Rome and Toronto, while total bans are now in place in Oxford, Barcelona, Montréal, New Delhi, and Tel Aviv.

A later report from the Guardian from 2019 said that despite numerous election campaign promises and some signs of positive action by local authorities in Rome - including the passing of an actual ban by a parliamentary transport committee - the Italian capital had at the time failed to properly address the problem of horse-drawn carriages which came to light once again when a horse collapsed and was forced to continue its two-hour tour, much to the horror of tourists whose pleas for the horse to receive veterinary attention were ignored by the driver.

Since that time, the BBC has reported that the ban in Rome is now in effect, yet rather than ending the enterprise outright, local authorities have simply moved the horses off the roads and into the city’s “historic parks”. In a post on Facebook, Mayor Virginia Raggi said: "You will never again see tired horses on the streets of the city during the hottest hours of the summer months because we have expressly forbidden it.”

However, Rinaldo Sidoli, a spokesperson for the animal activist group Alleanza Popolare Ecologista, rightly pointed out that the new rules did not go far enough: "In 2016, Raggi had guaranteed the abolition of horse-drawn carriages - not just sending them to parks so these horses will continue to be exploited.”

In Rome, moving the horses from roads and city centres, off the hard surfaces and away from noisy tourists and car exhaust fumes, does somewhat address the welfare concerns and help city authorities dodge further criticism and the tarnishing of its image in the eyes of tourists, without having to deal with calls to provide carriage drivers with any form of compensation over the loss of their livelihoods, as we saw offered in Montreal, Canada, when a ban was imposed there in 2019. There, the city authorities offered $1,000 in compensation per horse, with Montreal’s SPCA establishing a programme to rehome horses and provide them with permanent retirement.

Arguably one of the best-known places for this form of horse exploitation is New York City, with the horse carriages regarded by many as part of the city’s cultural heritage. Appearances in film and television have made horse-drawn carriages almost iconic, yet for all the romanticism, hidden beneath the rosy veneer is an industry of extreme exploitation.

According to the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), “every year in New York City, there are multiple accidents involving carriage horses that have been startled by sudden noises” while horses were regularly working in temperatures as low as -7 and as high as 32 degrees celsius until new regulations in 2019 improved things somewhat, but fail to account for the fact that the surface of the roads can be many times hotter than the surroundings and therefore damaging to the horse’s sensitive hooves. Furthermore, “carriage horses in New York City only spend a single five-week period every year away from pavement, not enough to adequately maintain hoof health”.

National Geographic has even seen fit to cover the controversy surrounding horse-drawn carriages in New York City after a 12-year-old horse named Aisha collapsed in Central Park for unknown reasons and was later euthanised. The article makes for some harrowing reading but does offer a balanced perspective with some carriage operators clearly grappling with their own cognitive dissonance as they express what seems to be genuine concern about horse welfare and a belief that what they do is ok.

Once again we find ourselves faced with the welfare argument, as we do with so much concerning the outright exploitation of non-human animals. In the case of farm animals, their exploitation is often justified under the mistaken belief that eating their bodies, secretions and eggs is somehow essential for our survival, however, in this context horses are being used purely for the entertainment of tourists.

It is not even as if we need horses for transport, certainly not within cities with cars, buses and mass transport systems. As such, and in every sense, the industry of horse-drawn carriages is exploitative, unnecessary and unjustifiable, and it has to end.

Andrew Gough is Media and Investigations Manager for Surge.

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