Montreal is looking at all its options, including shutting down its calèche industry, in the wake of another incident with one of its horse-drawn carriages. A horse that got away from its owner was struck by a car and then stumbled to its knees at the corner of Peel and Wellington Sts. in Griffintown Wednesday. The incident was caught on video and widely shared. The horse wasn’t injured, but will have to be stabled for two weeks.
“It’s certain the images are shocking and more and more people will ask that we stop,” Mayor Denis Coderre said. The city ordered a study of the industry after incidents that occurred last summer, including a calèche horse that lay down in the street after slipping on a metal plate. The report has been completed and civil servants are studying it, Coderre said, but added that in his mind the calèche is part of Montreal’s identity.
“We must make sure the animal is protected,” he said. Options include enacting stricter rules to regulate the industry, modernizing the horse’s stables, or banning the calèche services as other cities have done. Coderre said that could lead to the horses being euthanized, however, as many are at the end of their working lives.
Opposition party Projet Montréal said the city has to prove it can manage the industry, or otherwise shut it down before a pedestrian is seriously injured. The party is calling for an investigation of the most recent accident, a publication of the city-commissioned report, a public consultation on the calèche industry and for the city to increase the number of inspectors monitoring the horses.
“If Montreal is not able to manage the industry, we will demand it be abolished,” councillor Sterling Downey said. There are numerous animal protection agencies who could assure the horses would not have to be put down in the case their calèche careers were ended, he said.
