Collapsed Horse Tied Up, Dragged, and Hoisted on Forklift : Please Protest

PETA

UPDATE

Jerry is DEAD. The Oversons intentionally published photos of a different horse to conceal Jerry’s real condition.  Read more HERE.


BACKGROUND | SOURCE PETA

Like all horses who are forced to pull carriages, Jerry has to work in all weather extremes, including the scorching summers and the bitter winters of Salt Lake City. He hauls tourists through the busy, congested downtown streets, inhaling fumes and competing for road space with honking cars. Last weekend, while pulling tourists, he apparently succumbed to the 98-degree heat and collapsed. The heat radiating off the black asphalt on which he was pulling a carriage would have been far, far hotter than 98 degrees.

Jerry was too weak to stand, so his handlers tied ropes around his body and dragged him into a trailer.

They drove him to the stable, but he was still too weak to stand, so his handlers put straps around his limp body and hoisted him into the barn with a forklift.

Jerry’s owners said that he collapsed because he suffers from colic. We are doubtful and suspect heat exhaustion, although colic can be brought on or exacerbated by heat, dehydration, and stress—three factors that essentially define daily life for horses who are forced to pull carriages.

PETA is once again calling on Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker to prevent tragedies like this one and support efforts to ban horse-drawn carriages on city streets. More regulations on this practice won’t solve the problem. Regulations can’t reshape Salt Lake City’s densely urban environment, and they can’t change the fact that horses are extremely sensitive to loud noises.

WHOM TO CONTACT

Contact Mayor Becker and let him know that you oppose forcing horses to pull carriages.

Also write to Salt Lake Animals Services HERE

SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Mayor Becker,

I am writing today to encourage you to oppose the horse carriage industry, as reminded by the exhaustion and subsequent fatal injuries as suffered by Jerry, an overworked carriage industry victim.

Allow me this moment to illustrate. Since the industry is profit driven, current safety or “humane” protocols, being cost-prohibitive, are not observed; indeed, any animal used as a goal to human profit is regarded in a fundamentally cruel and exploitative manner. Specifically, horses are subjected to numerous cruelties and inhumane conditions including respiratory impairment as the result of perpetual inhalation of vehicle exhaust; horses are required to operate under grueling conditions and varied temperatures including high heat, humidity, and frigid cold, impairing their well-being while exhaustively working long hours; neglected appropriate medical care, horses often suffer lameness and other physical conditions; horses are typically serving this industry secondary to previous laboring of racing or farming, enduring lifelong injuries while forced to pull incredibly massive weights upward of 8,000 pounds; traffic conditions being erratic at best creates extremely precarious conditions and potentially fatal accidents; the natural lifespan of horses is dramatically diminished resulting from such dangerous and unpredictable conditions, and they are often retired to slaughterhouses, the final indecency forced upon them by greedy humans.

Pragmatically, horse drawn carriages are a transportation relic, historically essential but currently hazardous to both horses and humans. Although potentially attractive to unaware passengers, the horse drawn carriage industry, as a novelty, is not critical to city tourism; indeed, tourists visit for the culture, theatre, nightlife, and landmarks, and the potential loss of tourism benefits absent horse drawn carriages will most certainly be negligible. Nevertheless, establishing potential economic benefits to validate unethical actions is unacceptable and we must not allow finances to compromise our moral parameters. Indeed, your communities certainly wish to be viewed as respectful of and concerned with animal rights.

It is important to acknowledge that all animals, like humans, are sentient, capable of fear, love, pain, and suffering, and nobody has the right to expose them to slavery and its conditions.

I know your time is limited, and I want to thank you for your attention to this urgent appeal.

NAME

LETTER I RECEIVED FROM THE MAYOR

Thank you for contacting me about Jerry, the carriage horse. I am touched that so many residents, and those well beyond our city borders, would take the time to express their concern about Jerry and horse drawn carriages in Salt Lake City. I share your concerns and have been getting regular updates about Jerry’s health. I understand he is recovering, and receiving regular check-ups under the care of a local veterinarian.

Salt Lake County Animal Services is the agency that oversees the care of horses owned by the carriage operator and found that this carriage company was in compliance at the time of an annual inspection that took place in April 2013. They have also continued to monitor Jerry’s care and recovery.

Following this incident, Salt Lake City is investigating the current practice and ordinances in other municipalities relating to horse drawn carriage companies. The City Council and Mayor’s Office will work closely together to study this issue as more information becomes available.

I look forward to the healthy recovery of Jerry and thank you again for your thoughtful comments.

Warm Regards,

Ralph
Mayor Ralph Becker
Salt Lake City, Utah


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my name is jerry
i am so tired and
hot.
i am overworked
and abused.
so sickens the
plot.
many many horses
out there mistreated
this way, too.
please help us
and do whatever you
can do.
we want to be
treated they
you want to.
the golden rule
is for all…
that’s truth!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson