While the warm weather currently affecting Brussels is great for attracting the tourists that are sorely needed by the local economy, the heat is less ideal for our equine friends, who are used for pulling tourist carriages through the city’s streets.
Brussels MP Victoria Austraet is calling for a ban on the carriages during the hot weather, Belgian newspaper Sudinfo reports. The MP was elected in 2019 as the first animal rights deputy in a Belgian regional parliament, originally representing the DierAnimal party. However, she now sits as an independent.
“I don’t understand, the horses were working when it was 29℃. In other years, the managers had taken the initiative not to take the horses out. I did not expect to see them at all,” Austraet stated.
In other cities, there have been protests over the use of horse-drawn carriages during the heat. Activists in Vienna, Austria have called for a 30℃ limit for the use of the carriages, as opposed to the current 35℃ guidelines. Carriage drivers in the city argued that such rules would hurt the industry and even negatively affect the welfare of the horses.
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In 2018, the social media of Carriage Tour Brussels was targeted for its use of horses in 35℃ heat. The company insisted that pulling the horse-drawn carriages from service was “unnecessary” and that measures were taken to ensure that the animals remained cool.
Nevertheless, in some major European cities, tourists were shocked to see horses collapse or become ill during the high heat. “Two horses collapsed due to the high heat. It happened in Malaga in July and in New York this month. Every year, we hear stories like this,” the MP warned.
In 2019, Austraet’s former party proposed a complete ban of horse-drawn carriages on the Grande Place, following the example of cities such as Barcelona and Montréal.
