Horse-drawn vehicles must go!

In Victoria, horses continue to be injured and the public continues to be put at risk by the operation of horse-drawn vehicles.

The decision by the City of Melbourne to remove the street-trading permits of carriage operators in 2017 was a smart and essential one - The Lord Mayor at the time stating "Horse-drawn vehicles, modern traffic, a busy city, a million people a day — they just don't mix." Despite this, horse-drawn carriages are continuing to operate and are frequently observed illegally street-trading, illegally parking and breaching road safety laws all over the City of Melbourne.

In 2021, horse-drawn vehicles ...

In Victoria, horses continue to be injured and the public continues to be put at risk by the operation of horse-drawn vehicles.

The decision by the City of Melbourne to remove the street-trading permits of carriage operators in 2017 was a smart and essential one - The Lord Mayor at the time stating "Horse-drawn vehicles, modern traffic, a busy city, a million people a day — they just don't mix." Despite this, horse-drawn carriages are continuing to operate and are frequently observed illegally street-trading, illegally parking and breaching road safety laws all over the City of Melbourne.

In 2021, horse-drawn vehicles (HDV's) are still being permitted to travel on Victorian roads and after years of warnings and obvious animal distress, a horse fatality has now been confirmed.

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Under VicRoads law, horses are considered mere vehicles. Using horses to pull carriages is an archaic, extremely dangerous and unnecessary practice. Horses deserve to be recognised as the sentient, aware and complex individuals that they are. Email the decision makers today.

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In 2021, horse-drawn vehicles (HDV's) are still permitted to travel on Victorian roads. This has led to, and will continue to lead to, frequent incidents of horse and human injury.

On Sunday 21 March 2021, almost four years after horse-drawn carriages were banned from street-trading in Melbourne, a horse lay dead on the road, still attached to the carriage. One company, who was present at the scene, claims the horse appeared to have suffered a heart attack, 24 hours after lying to the media, claiming they knew nothing about it.

The decision by the City of Melbourne to remove the street-trading permits of carriage operators effective as of July 1 2017 was a smart and essential one but this is clearly not enough.  Horse-drawn carriages continue to operate and are frequently observed illegally street-trading, illegally parking and repeatedly breaching road safety laws all over the City of Melbourne. It couldn't be made clearer that these operators have no intention of abiding by local laws and state road safety laws.

An agenda item at the 20th April 2021 Future Melbourne Committee meeting called for a summit with the relevant authorities to get together and address the issues inherent to Melbourne's HDV's. It passed unanimously by the Lord Mayor and all Councillors. This is great news and I applaud Cr. Leppert for putting this important motion forward and to Cr. Ball for seconding it.

We the public demand that horse-drawn vehicles be banned from Victorian roads entirely and the City of Melbourne are moving in the right direction to make this a reality.

The reality right now though is, under your watch, horses continue to be injured and the public continues to be put at risk. These animals and the public should not continue to be put at unnecessary risk while authorities choose to ignore their suffering and the dangers and mayhem they continue to cause in Melbourne's CBD.   After years of warnings, a horse fatality has now been confirmed. Will you wait for another, or will you take action now?

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