The finish of the street it appears is close to for Chicago’s much-maligned horse-drawn carriage business.
Starting Jan. 1, carriage rides well-liked by vacationers, newlyweds and prom-goers, however criticized through animal rights activists as merciless to horses and perilous to motorists will probably be banned — if a long-stalled ordinance that in any case cleared the City Council’s Committee on License and Consumer Protection Committee on Wednesday wins complete Council approval.
Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) stated he “spent the better part of a decade trying to regulate” the business and persuade carriage operators to “treat their animals in a humane way.”
It didn’t paintings. In every of the ultimate 10 years, the town has issued “hundreds of violations.”
“There are folks that have an issue with this industry entirely related to traffic and public safety. There are others who care about whether these animals are being treated in a humane fashion. For me, it’s a combination of both,” Reilly stated.
“I grew up surrounded by farms and horses. They’re bred to work. But they were not bred to be sucking gas fumes from the back of CTA buses and co-mingling with cement mixers. That’s not … humane treatment of animals. They do not belong in downtown busy traffic. In other cities, we’ve seen people and animals killed because they’re co-mingled with traffic.”
Reilly stated he presented to shift the pony drawn carriage business to Grant Park just about six years in the past. The resolution: No.
He famous best 3 firms and 10 licenses are left in Chicago. That’s down from 60 licenses on the business’s height. It presentations “people are voting with their feet,” he stated.
But, what in regards to the loss to newlywed {couples} and prom-goers who view a carriage trip down Michigan Ave. at sundown as romantic?
“If you enjoy exploiting an animal in the middle of busy traffic, I guess that’s a really fun thing to do,” Reilly stated, tongue firmly in cheek.
“I’m not sympathetic. If you want to do that, go to the suburbs and rent a horse.”
Ald. Brian Hopkins (second) stated Chicago has been “fortunate” to have have shyed away from “some of the more horrific collisions” that experience taken position in different towns involving horse drawn carriages. For now.
“When you take a large, slow-moving object and put it downtown on Michigan Avenue, Chicago Avenue or inner Lake Shore Drive during peak traffic periods, you’re clearly taking a risk,” he stated.
Two years in the past, committee chairman Emma Mitts (37th) held a listening to at the ban championed through Reilly and Hopkins however refused to name for a vote. She was once incensed aldermen had been speaking about horses as gang violence persevered unabated in her West Side ward.
Wednesday, Mitts was once a no-show. The listening to was once chaired through Hopkins, the License Committee’s vice-chair.
Before calling for the vote, Hopkins let the carriage-haters rant and rave about animal cruelty — as they do ahead of virtually each and every City Council assembly.
Then, he let the soon-to-be-extinct business have their say.
“We’re opposed to this, but there’s probably not one thing I can say to change your mind here today. Why are you wanting the carriages gone? Nobody’s answering that overall question.” stated Tony Troyer of the Horseman’s Council of Illinois.
“We have more regulation than any other state and city. Yet you would like to see a ban. … It’s pretty bad when we have more regulations on the horse-and-carriage business than the pedicabs. How many hours can one person be out there riding around on the bike?”
Larry Ortega, proprietor of Chicago Horse and Carriage, attempted to poke holes within the animal cruelty argument.
“Even though there are city state and federal laws clearly stating what is animal cruelty, there has never been one horse driver or owner arrested operating on the city streets of Chicago,” Ortega stated.
“To think that the city is fine for a mounted police horse, but not a carriage horse is blatantly hypocritical.”
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