Yahoo – AFP,
January 18, 2016
New York's horse carriage industry, which mainly takes tourists through Central Park, has come under criticism from animal welfare agencies (AFP Photo/Spencer Platt) |
New York
(AFP) - New York reached a deal that will almost halve the number of horses
licensed to perform carriage rides in Central Park after the mayor called them
inhumane to animals.
The
agreement, which will keep the industry alive, comes after Mayor Bill de Blasio
promised two years ago to abolish the rides popular with tourists, loved-up
couples and immortalized in movies.
The deal,
which will start to come into effect from June 1 and take three years to be
fully implemented, will reduce from 180 to 110 the number of licensed horses by
December 1, the city council said.
The
ultimate goal is to reduce the number to 95 and to give 75 horses a long-term
home in Central Park stables, therefore banning public horse rides on the
streets of Manhattan.
"We
are pleased to have reached an agreement in concept on the future of New York's
horse carriage industry," said the mayor's office said.
"We
look forward to working together on the final details of this legislation and
getting this passed," it added in a statement.
The
agreement demands that by October 1 2018 stables will be established in Central
Park to house 68 carriages and 75 horses, the city council said.
New York
reached a deal late that will almost halve the number of horses licensed
to
perform carriage rides in Central Park after the mayor called them inhumane to
animals (AFP Photo/Jewel Samad)
|
Horses not
at work must be on furlough outside the city, and no carriage can operate for
longer than nine hours a day by December 1.
NYClass,
one of the groups demanding a ban on carriage rides, has collected more than
35,800 signatures in an online petition.
The
petition calls the carriage horse industry "cruel, inhumane and
unsafe" and demands the horses to be retired to sanctuaries.
"Horses
do not belong in a congested, urban setting where they constantly breathe
exhaust while dodging dangerous traffic," it says.
The group was
not immediately reachable for comment to the deal.
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