Friends of Animals is immensely gratified that San Antonio lawmakers are one step closer to producing a bill to ban the use of carriage horses after the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee gave the go-ahead Aug. 19.

Not only are we pressing for swift action to pass this long overdue legislation so that the dangerous and abusive carriage horse trade can finally be abolished, we implore legislators to include language that requires all the horses to be placed in reputable sanctuaries when their days toiling in downtown San Antonio traffic are finally over.

FoA has criticized and agitated against the carriage horse trade in San Antonio since 2013 because we manage Primarily Primates, a sanctuary for primates located in the city, and for 50 years in New York City where we had an office in Columbus Circle.

Finally, this City Council is primed to banish, not just attempt to regulate, this cruel industry. We support a transition to electric carriages without horses.

Owners, drivers and some tourists justify the industry because it’s “a tradition” saying horses have been pulling carriages through San Antonio since 1865. Tradition doesn’t make animal abuse acceptable. We visit San Antonio frequently and we have had a front-row seat to the nose-to-tailpipe existence of carriage horses in an increasingly hot city. Horses, who are prey animals and prone to spooking, should not be forced out among dense traffic, exhaust fumes, street construction and honking horns. All of this continues to fuel our efforts to pass legislation that would abolish the unnecessary industry for good.

While there have been lame attempts to regulate the industry—currently carriages are not allowed to operate if the temperature is 95 degrees or higher—FoA has always remained steadfast that you cannot regulate atrocities. We have never wavered from wanting a full ban and for the horses to be released by their owners to proper sanctuaries.

If San Antonio loves horses, it should do the right thing and stop exploiting them.