Editor’s note: A previous version of this story included a quote from Grace Hamlin as the head of nonprofit W-Underdogs. The quote has been removed after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution received information showing the organization no longer has 501c(3) status and Hamlin faces charges of animal cruelty.
On July 22, the Atlanta Police Department received an unusual 9-1-1 call. A horse had collapsed at the intersection of Forsyth and Garnett Streets on the south side of downtown.
“It’s a horse down in the middle of the street, it’s been blocking traffic for about 40 minutes,” the caller said. “They don’t know what’s wrong with it. It’s in and out. It won’t get up. It’s limping.”
A video of the incident shows a white horse lying helplessly on the Atlanta street with blood staining the pavement around it. Luckily, the horse has made a full recovery, according to Fulton County Animal Services who took it into their care.
But the startling scene caused an uproar from animal rights groups and rekindled accusations of inhumane treatment of carriage horses that often tow newlyweds, birthday revelers or eager tourists who hail a ride under Atlanta’s Ferris wheel.
Now, advocates are taking to the podium at City Hall to press legislators to completely ban the use of horse-drawn carriages in Atlanta or, at the very least, regulate them.
Council member Michael Julian Bond said that the carriage industry used to be regulated by the city’s taxicab bureau, but that department shuttered long ago.
“It has to be within the last decade that it went away,” he said during a committee meeting this week. “But they were the regulatory body for the industry. So I guess there is some looking we should do as far as bringing that back into focus for the city.”
Rules and stipulations written decades ago around horse-drawn carriages are outlined within city code. Rides during the week can’t start until 6:30 p.m. and must end at 6 a.m. to avoid rush hours. Horses must have hourly breaks and can’t work in severe weather conditions including if temperatures reach over 95 degrees.
Julie Robertson, with the nonprofit group Georgia Animal Rights and Protection, has been documenting poor living and working conditions for horses that traverse downtown Atlanta streets. She said that with no one watching, treatment of the animals is “appalling.”
“There is absolutely no oversight, no enforcement, it’s just anything goes,” she said. “And people are riding these carriages feeling like Atlanta is monitoring it and feeling like it is safe — it’s not.”
Robertson has spent years recording code violations like reckless carriage drivers running red lights, oozing sores under horses’ harnesses and even horses running off with carriages unattended.
“Horses don’t belong in downtown Atlanta,” she said.
A number of cities across the country have already outlawed carriages including Chicago, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Asheville and multiple cities in Florida. Animal advocates in New York City and Philadelphia are also pushing for change.
The issue got some attention last summer, when Council member Keisha Sean-Waites said she intended to introduce legislation that would require the industry transition to other options like electric carriages over a period of time, but the effort never saw any movement.
Waites told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that legislators seeking to protect carriage horses from abuse also have to weigh the dire impact an outright ban would have on businesses who have operated in Atlanta for decades.
“You have to be sensitive to both sides of this conversation because it is a real industry,” Waites said. “Not all of them are out there breaking the law. Not all of them are out there working horses in 100 degree weather without water or a rest — not all of them are bad actors.”
Waites said that conversations with other council members and law enforcement offices have been centered around reassigning a city agency to regulate and inspect the carriage businesses.
“We’re trying to figure out what to do because the reality is we can’t ban horse carriage rides,” she said. “I don’t think that’s the answer.”
The incident last month wasn’t the first time a carriage horse was injured in downtown Atlanta. In 2010, animal rights group PETA sent a letter to former Mayor Kasim Reed calling to ban carriages after a speeding car hit the back of a carriage, destroying it, traumatizing the horse and sending four people to the hospital.
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